Trains don't go to nowhere
by Wool fish
Summary: Arthur's family died in an air raid and his eight year old cousin Ralph's family up and left them behind. So here they were; on a train taking them to an orphanage in the middle of nowhere. Little does he know, the orphanage is occupied by a bunch of wierd, culturally diverse kids. Post WW2 AU World/England
1. Chapter 1

"Hey, Arthur, Which do you think is sadder; your family is dead, but you know they loved you, or your family has abandoned you without even bothering to say a proper goodbye?" Arthur's younger cousin asked. It was getting late and was raining heavily outside the train.

"They're both sad, Ralph." Arthur replied, glancing out at the dancing water droplets on his window, typical British weather.

Arthur knew what Ralph was talking about. He didn't know to avoid the topic of their family's 'splitting up', he was only eight. He thought back to that awful night.

_"Mommy! Daddy? Peter!? Where are you!?" screamed Arthur as he searched dilligentley for his family that had long since been lost to the flames_. _The smoke hurt his lungs and the flames from the surrounding buildings scorched his skin. Ralph was waiting for Arthur and the rest of his extended family to return to the stuffy train station where they were seeking refuge from the fire and bombs that lit up the inky blackness of London's streets tonight. Arthur had to go back to the train station with his family. They could all go live with another relative when all this is over! Their house was gone, but at least they'd be together… _

Ralph's parents however, were most probably still living. Ralph had been born in Australia and had come to England when he was three.

_Ralph clung to his aunt's beautiful white dress. He cried as he watched his parents leave on that boat , darkening the dress with his tears. "Why did they leave me!?" he wailed. His awful parents just smiled and waved, not shedding a single tear for the boy that they'd left behind. "Why don't they love me?!" The unwanted child screamed, not receiving an answer._

Ralph was barely four when the prospect of war reared it's ugly head they left him for a better life in their homeland.

Somehow, Arthur and Ralph lived to see the end of the war. And there they sat, on a train to an orphanage in the middle of nowhere.

When they arrived it had gotten darker. From what Arthur could see in the dull glow of the porch light, the orphanage was a mildly happy looking place. It was a huge mansion like building with big windows, colourful flowers and many vines winding up the walls. The path leading up to the porch was covered in chalk drawings of what looked like plates of food. Mainly pasta. The porch itself was quite nice too; it had lots of porch-y things like wooden chairs and small trees along with the occasional gnome here and there.

Arthur glanced at Ralph. His cousin looked on the verge of tears.

"Chin up, Ralph. I'm sure things will get better. They can't get worse." He said

"Okay, Arthur." Ralph replied flashing a very weak smile.

They picked up their small amount of belongings (a suitcase of clothes, a cricket bat, a stuffed crocodile Ralph couldn't live without and Arthur's green bunny) and walked up to the door (which upon further inspection, was also covered in drawings of pasta).

Before they even rang the doorbell, an incredibly happy looking man burst out of the entrance, almost pulling the door off its hinges. He seemed… strange to say the least.

While the strange man chatted to Ralph excitedly, Arthur recognised his accent as Italian (which Arthur thought must've been wrong since they had been at war with the Italians, hadn't they?) The man was quite tall, had curly brown hair, amber eyes and a seemingly constant smile. He seemed to be was having somewhat of a one sided conversation with Ralph.

"…and that's how I met the prettiest lady ever!" said the strange man. What an odd way to introduce yourself. Arthur wondered how he managed to stray from 'hello my name is…' Arthur realised he had zoned out.

"Umm… I apologise, I wasn't listening… who are you?" Arthur asked

"It's alright, Arthur!" said the man, patting Arthur on the back "I am Alvise! You and your cousin's caretaker from now on! It's so nice to meet you!" Continued Alvise, who shook Arthur's hand vigorously.

After many moments of Alvise talking too fast and Arthur not understanding what was being said to him, another tall fellow with long blonde hair and green-blue eyes walked up behind the boys' supposed new caretaker.

"Alvise, invite them inside. It's cold out here." Said the man with long hair

'_Why do they both have accents? This one is hard to place… is it some sort of German?'_ thought Arthur.

Arthur was very confused and mildly irritated. Why were these foreigners living here? How did they get here? Arthur had a feeling these questions would remain unanswered.

"Hello Kurt!" exclaimed Alvise. Ralph giggled, probably finding amusement in Kurt's very… luscious hair.

"Alright, let's get you two to your room, come on!" said Alvise.

On the way to their room, Alvise explained that Kurt was his 'best friend forever' who helped take care of the kids.

"I have grandkids about your age~ you'll probably meet them later, I love them so very much~ Kurt has some grandchildren too…" Alvise trailed off "Ah, I forgot I have work to do. Kurt, can you take these two to their room?" Alvise said before rushing off.

_Grandchildren? _Arthur found it strange that two seemingly young men would have grandchildren. Alvise and Kurt induced too much thinking and too many questions.

"Mm" Kurt grumbled "This way." He motioned for the boys to follow

After walking through the kitchen, out the back door and into an entirely new building, Kurt took them up a large flight of stairs. On the way, a little boy about Ralph's age with striking blue eyes, blonde hair and a cowlick ran into Arthur full force.

"I'm sorry!" exclaimed the boy. "Oh, hey, I don't think I've seen you before!" he shouted, following the three. Loud, check. Too much emphasis on his 'r's, double check. An American.

Arthur just stared straight ahead. He was tired after the train ride from London and didn't want to have to deal with 'new friends' just yet, but things never seemed to work out like he wanted.

"I'm Alfred! Who're you?"

"I'm Arthur."

"I'm Ralph!" he and Alfred seemed to take a liking to each other because they immediately partook in a High-Five.

Alfred looked at Arthur "Aw man, your eyebrows are amazing… I sorta wanna… touch 'em… but I won't~ Papa said it was rude to touch people without asking."

There was a pause.

"Can I touch them?" asked Alfred

"Yeah, Art can we touch them?" said Ralph

"No." Arthur said bluntly "and my name is Arthur, _Ralphie_."

A look of sadness formed on Alfred's face, then a look that said 'oh, yeah, I had something to do, didn't I?' "Bye! See ya soon!" shouted Alfred, running off in the opposite direction.

"See ya, mate!" yelled Ralph in his too broad Australian accent.

"You seem unhappy, Arthur." Said Ralph

"Not unhappy, just tired" replied Arthur, trying his hardest not to scowl.

"could'a fooled me"

There was more silence until they stopped in front of a door. Kurt spoke up.

"This is your room." Kurt said standing pointing to said door. "I could help you unpack, if you want."

"No thank you." Ralph said quickly, standing in front of the suitcase of clothes protectively.

"Dinner should be done soon. Come down to the house when you want some." said Kurt before walking away.

"You should go and explore! Maybe have dinner or something! I'll unpack for us!" Ralph said suspiciously.

_'You would think he's keeping a koala bear in the suitcase or something' _Arthur chuckled at the thought.

"Not a bad idea, I think I'll take you up on that." Arthur replied.

Ralph smiled a very suspicious smile and as Arthur walked away from the now closed door, he thought he heard Ralph say "Hey Bruce, don't give me evils" Ralph was a weird one, wasn't he?

Arthur walked around for a bit without seeing a single soul, they must've been having dinner. He didn't want any, all the excitement from moving and whatnot. Suddenly he felt himself get tackled. Or sat on. He couldn't really tell through the crushing weight and loss of air.

"Ah… comfy… oh wait, you're not someone I know." Said the huge (presumably Russian) boy sitting on Arthur. Neither said anything as Arthur wheezed and gasped for air.

"Get… off…" he managed to say after much effort.

"Okay." The boy with the Russian accent said.

Arthur stayed on the floor for a few seconds after that, trying to regain his breath.

When Arthur sat up to get a look at his tormentor, the boy was staring at him intently. He was very tall, had light blonde hair, a big nose, light purple eyes, and was wearing a white scarf with a big, tan coat.

"So, who are you?" he asked.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that? You _did_ sit on me after all." Arthur grumped.

"No. You tell me your name first." Insisted the boy

"Why should I?"

"Because I said to"

"You're so rude." Arthur gave a look of displeasure but sighed and decided it was gentlemanly to introduce himself first. "My name is Arthur Kirkland" he said.

"Ivan Braginski." Ivan stared at Arthur for a few more seconds, and then gave him a smile that caused shivers to run down Arthur's spine.

"Why did you sit on me?" Arthur questioned

"I like to sit." he said plainly before wandering off down the hall but stopping to admire some sunflowers in a vase.

_'I don't like the creepy bugger already.'_ Thought Arthur, shivering again.

After making sure nothing was broken Arthur went downstairs and ran into Alfred again. Alfred had been in a rush to get out the front door, but he hugged Arthur rather unexpectedly just before he disappeared out the front door with two adults who he bared resemblance to

"Bye Artie! We have to play sometime!" yelled Alfred.

How can someone yell _that _much? Arthur felt as if someone else was left with them, but he remembered no one.

"Alfred's lucky" said a brunette that had been sitting near Arthur. He had a big curl sticking out from the rest of his chestnut hair. He also donned a massive frown; he vaguely resembled Alvise and the frown would've made it difficult to tell if they were related if it weren't for their similar accents. Arthur gave up. Too many different races. More than two made his head hurt from thinking too hard about how they ended up in England.

"He has parents? I thought this was an orphanage." Arthur said after partially getting over the accent problem.

"Yeah, you're not wrong. The bastard moved here with his family. He came over to this place a few months ago to visit for god knows why, probably to eat our food, and hasn't stopped coming over since" said the boy.

"Mm… I'm jealous of him" Arthur mumbled, thinking about how nice it would be if his immediate family were still alive.

"I'm Lovino Vargas" he and Arthur shook hands.

"Arthur Kirkland"

"Have you met a little boy who looks like me?"

"No, why?"

"Keep it that way; Feliciano will infect you with his stupid. So will my grandpa if you get too close"

"Ah, sounds like you love them a lot." Arthur said, not entirely sarcastically

"Mm, we have our moments, but in the end they're still stupid bastards"

Arthur laughed.

"So Alvise is your grandfather, right?"

"Yeah"

"Lucky~ I just have a hyperactive eight year old as family"

"Too bad for you, bastard"

"I should teach you some manners, you might accidentally swear at someone who isn't as forgiving as I am" Arthur said jokingly

"Shut up your fa-"Lovino started

A loud noise was heard and an albino, a brunette, and a guy with stupid hair walked into the room. The albino then proceeded to walk into the wall next to him.

"You should probably run. Those three are douchebags, you don't want them to catch you" Lovino said.

"What?"

"Just go." Lovino said as he retreated

"Bye. See you tomorrow?" Arthur said loudly as he did the same

"Yeah, whatever, bastard" Lovino shouted back.

Arthur headed back to his room. In the hallway he could hear Ralph muttering unintelligible nonsense to a 'Bruce' _'who is Bruce?'_ he wondered. Arthur walked in as Ralph was saying 'you bludger, why did I even bring you?' To an angry looking koala

"Why do you have a Koala bear?" Arthur questioned. Ralph looked shocked to see Arthur.

"Koalas aren't bears, and Bruce isn't a koala, he's a drop bear, if you don't get it right I'll think you have kangaroos loose in the top paddock." He said like Arthur knew what he was saying. Arthur was obviously confused. "It means I'll think you're 'intellectually inadequate' as you pommy bastards would put it." Ralph said mockingly

"You're avoiding the question." Arthur said

"He followed me here."

"Koalas can't swim across the ocean."

"Bruce can."

"Why?"

"Because he's not a koala, he's a drop bear."

"aughhh… I give up, wake me in the morning"

"But it's so early!"

"Cut me some slack, I've had to deal with you all day."

"Fair dinkum"

"Goodnight, Ralph"

"G'night, Art"

** (A/N: I'll define some slang for you:**

**Drop bear: An Australian animal that looks like a koala and loves to eat people, Especially Tourists.**

**Pommy bastards: An endearing way to address English folk.**

**Bludger: A lazy person**

**Figjam: Fuck I'm good, just ask me.**

**Oh, how I love this country's slang! It's fuckin' ripper (a lot of it's hard to explain though…). Also, in Aus it's rude NOT to swear, so… expect a lot of that from Australia/ Ralph. Actually, just expect it from everyone.)**


	2. Chapter 2

Arthur awoke to Ralph sitting on him.

_'Do I really look that comfortable?'_ Arthur wondered

"G'day, Arthur. How are ya this fine morning?" Ralph said cheerfully.

"I would be better if I wasn't being sat on by a certain small boy." Arthur told him.

"I wonder who that could be?" Ralph replied as he got off. "Get dressed, we're gonna go out to the big house soon~" Ralph's koala was still clinging to his head.

_'Oh god, it's staring at me. Please go away soon evil koala.'_

Arthur walked down the stairs cautiously, afraid of getting tackled by Ralph or someone else. He didn't, which made him rather happy. At the bottom of the stairs a tall blond boy who looked rather a lot like Kurt and a smallish boy with a curl who looked a lot like Lovino were chatting.

_'Oh, must be Lovino's brother'_

"Ciao!" the small (Italian) boy said to Arthur after registering his presence

"…Hello, I'm Arthur… this is Ralph…" After seeing Ralph wasn't there, he got confused but couldn't say he wasn't surprised.

_'How does he do that?' _

"He went to the kitchen." Said the other boy, whose accent was, quite obviously, German

"Ve~ he must be hungry~ I can't blame him, you guys didn't come down for dinner last night, it was pasta~" The small Italian gave Arthur a once over. "I'm Feliciano Vargas! Your eyebrows are amazing~" Arthur frowned a little at the eyebrow comment, but let it slide because he probably didn't know better; he only looked to be about nine.

After a silence, the blonde boy began to speak "I am Ludwig Beilschmidt… please tell me when Feliciano annoys you too much." Feliciano looked hurt at this.

_ 'What did he mean by 'when'?'_

"Umm… if you don't mind me asking are you two related to Kurt and Alvise?" Arthur asked

"Not at all" replied Ludwig "They're our grandfathers."

"Ve~ they're so old~ they're almost fifty~" said Feliciano.

_'So he and Lovino _are_ brothers'_

"Well I'd better go find Ralph…" Arthur sighed.

_'He's such a handful sometimes. The last thing I'd want is him beating everyone to death with his stuffed crocodile' _Arthur had no idea that the crocodile was, in fact, _not_ stuffed but real. However, that's another story for another time.

As soon as Arthur walked into the dining room to look for Ralph he noticed the very small amount of people in the huge room, an Asian boy and the three 'must avoid' teenagers… he didn't really get to finish that thought because the blonde teen with douchey hair kissed him. On the lips. Arthur was immobilized by rage until douche-hair shouted with his thick French accent to the other two teenagers: "I said I'd do it! You owe me a favour Gill!"

Arthur started to swear like a sailor, his anger seemingly taking the physical shape of a badly damaged watermelon (A/N: I have absolutely no idea how anger would look, if it isn't already apparent). Now you might say he was overreacting a tiny bit, but his rage was amplified by his blinding hatred for all things French, never mind the kiss.

Arthur proceeded to kick his pompous French arse and made sure the frog regretted what he did.

Arthur heard a snickering coming from behind him. He turned around and the two he assumed were friends of this frog were standing there, laughing.

"What?" Arthur glared at them

"You're the best, British guy. You just kicked Francis' butt!" said the German albino as he glanced at the aforementioned Francis

"I mean it's not exactly hard to do… but it was a good show~" said the albino

"Show? Show? I assure you, it was no 'show'. I hate the French, this 'Francis' will die by my hands if he tries something again. " Arthur said, letting his true nature shine through just a bit. That is, his undying hatred for the French.

"He knows my name!" exclaimed Francis from his place on the ground

"Shut it, pansy" said the heavily accented Australian voice that belonged to Ralph, who had appeared next to Arthur seemingly out of nowhere.

"Kesesesesesesesese! This is the best! Francey-pants, you're totally getting served by two little kids" said the albino.

"You should be quiet too figjam*, unless you'd like a cricket bat up your-"

"Who are you people!?" Arthur exclaimed, cutting Ralph off before he could finish.

"Fusososososo I'm Antonio Carriedo" Said the brunette, who had a huge smile on his face (like the rest).

"I am the awesome Gilbert Beilschmidt!" Said the albino

"So you _are_ related" Arthur mumbled to himself

"Hmm… what's that my awesome ears hear? Who am I related to?" Gilbert said, standing much too close for Arthurs liking.

"Oh, nothing, you're too egotistical to be related to them" Arthur stated

"I'm not egotistical; I'm just being honest in a really awesome way!"

Arthur proceeded to face palm at the overuse of the word 'awesome'

"Ahem, forgetting someone are we not?" said the so-called Francis, who had somehow recovered from the beatings Arthur gave him and was sparkling more than ever. "I am Francis Bonnefoy" he said, giving the douchy-est smile ever. "And you are…?" He gestured to Arthur

"I'm Arthur." Arthur turned to Ralph, who, strangely, had not said anything in a while and was staring at something

"They already met me, so introductions are done! Let's get brekkie" they walked to the kitchen for some porridge, upon getting said porridge, they walked to the closest table and sat down.

"Hey, Australian kid, I've been thinking that you use a few too many big words to be an entirely normal kid" said Gilbert, who had decided to take the seat in the corner with the least light.

"I spent too much time around well-read poms" Ralph replied

"That makes sense"

Arthur had never given it any thought before he did find it slightly odd, but decided to stop thinking about things that didn't really matter, at least not as much as his food right now, Arthur was ravenous.

Arthur moved from Ralph and the group of teens to sit next to the Asian boy at the other end of the table in hopes of making a new friend and having a quiet breakfast.

"Hello, I'm Arthur, nice to meet you." Arthur noted how much he'd been saying that sentence (or a variation of it) in the past few hours.

"I am Kiku Honda; it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance" he said politely, he quietly continued eating his food.

"So… umm… where are you from?" asked Arthur after a silence

"Japan."

"Do you have many friends here?"

"Not many."

"Would you… umm… like to be my friend?"

"That would be good."

"…thank you?"

"Tell me, Arthur-san do you enjoy reading…uh…book?"

"I love books!"

"You will like the book room"

"The library?"

"Yes. There's one on the… two… floor"

"You mean second"

"That's the word"

"Can we go there after we're done eating?"

"Yes, I would enjoy that"

"Good, good"

Arthur and Kiku finished eating as people started to file into the room. As he walked past, Arthur saw Lovino (who he proceeded to wave at), Feliciano and Ludwig standing in line for breakfast, talking to some other boys Arthur had yet to meet; some taller ones with blonde hair, a sort of normal brunette with glasses, some shorter ones with platinum blond hair, and a… puffin.

Deciding to just look away from the puffin that had started to death stare him (why did animals hate him so?), Arthur just silently followed Kiku up the few flights of stairs to the library.

Deciding to read a book about swashbuckling pirates, and Kiku doing the same with some sort of an oriental book with a dragon on the cover, all was quiet for some time until about 11:00 AM when the two boys had finished their books and had started to have a conversation.

"How did you end up here? Shouldn't you be in Japan? I mean, not to sound rude, but our countries aren't the best of friends at the moment" said Arthur

"That I am not sure of. The owner said he knew my parents somehow and decided to take care of me and from what I have heard most of the other children have a similar story to mine"

"That's odd… he's from somewhere else too, isn't he?"

Kiku just hummed in agreement for lack of the word 'probably'

"How long have you been here?"

"Not long, nearly a half year"

"Your English is extremely good"

Kiku smiled "Ariga-"he cut himself off "Thank you, I still need to get good-er"

"Better I think is the word. Would you like me to teach you a few things once I've settled in?"

"Yes please"

"Good" Said Arthur, who noticed he was still holding his book and promptly placed it back where he'd found it. There was a smashing sound, then a loud thump. Assuming Ralph had gotten up to no good with his new found friends, Arthur decided it was time to leave the comfort of the library. "I'm sorry Kiku, I'm afraid I have to go check on Ralph, I'm worried he's being naughty" Apologised Arthur

"It's okay Arthur-san, I understand" and with that, Arthur was running downstairs to see the damage done.

**figjam: Fuck I'm good, just ask me **


	3. Chapter 3

"Ralph! What happened?" said Arthur after seeing broken glass in a hall and Gilbert standing with Ralph in the middle of it all.

"I dunno, Art. We were running down the hall when Gilbert sorta smashed into the vase or whatever it was" said Ralph. Arthur just stared at the two until Ralph spoke again "dude, what up with you and running in ta shit?"

"Language, Ralph" said Arthur, death staring the little boy who shouldn't even know these words.

"Nah, Artie, I really do run into shit too much. I have eyesight problems."

Before the conversation continued Alvise burst into the room, and from Gilbert's lack of reaction, Arthur guessed this was a normal thing.

"Gilbert!" Alvise started "We really have to do something about all the vases in the halls, don't we? I wouldn't want to risk you or the other kids getting hurt~ just try to be more careful, and I know the light hurts your eyes, but please just try your best~" he paused, looked at the broken bits of the seemingly expensive vase thingy and said "As punishment for breaking it, you and Ralph have to clean it up~" he paused again "Gilbert, you also have to be best friends with Arthur for the month" with that, Alvise um… sort of run-waddled away…

"… Was that a secondary punishment, or just a side note…?" said Arthur

"Definitely a secondary punishment!" Ralph cackled

"I dunno, but it seems now you get to spend the rest of your less awesome life with the awesome me!" said Gilbert

"He just said for the rest of the month didn't he?" said Arthur

"I've decided to be awesome bros with you forever" replied Gilbert

"No. Just the month or I'll die of listening you say 'awesome' over and over" Arthur said with a look of distaste

"Whatever you say Artie~" said Gilbert with a smile

Meanwhile, Ralph had moved away and was cackling alone in a different hallway. It had yet to dawn on any of them that Alvise had been watching them the whole time.

Arthur walked down the empty hallway looking for something to do. It was Saturday. The third and last day of his 'settling in' period so he and Ralph would start school tomorrow. He had yet to properly meet the boys he'd seen at breakfast the previous morning and had decided to go and find them today.

He didn't have to look far, because three of the blondes he'd seen the previous morning were rushing down the hallways of the dorm and eventually collided with Arthur.

"Movemovemovemovemove!" said the tall one with spikey hair before falling right on top of Arthur

"You suck, Mathias! I'ww make you pay for making fun of us!" said the shortest one with the puffin, pinning 'Mathias' to floor (with Arthur beneath them)

"Emil, I'm happy you're causing Mathias pain, but there's someone underneath him who's probably in even more pain" said the middle sized one, calmly pointing to Arthur.

"Can't…. breathe…." Wheezed Arthur, all remaining air escaping his lungs

_'I'm going to die like this' _Arthur suddenly felt himself being hoisted up onto his feet.

"Oh man, I'm sorry dude. Are you okay? I'm so…." Arthur didn't hear the rest of that due to the fact that he had fainted. When he awoke, Arthur was in his bed with mint bunny. The three boys and Ralph were chatting quietly, not noticing that Arthur had awoken.

"Hello?" said Arthur, interrupting their quiet chatter

"Arthur! I'm so happy you're awake! I wanted to say that I'm really sorry for falling on you, even if the doctor said you were fine, you were out for two hours and I'm really, really, really-"

"I'm sure he gets the point, stupid Dane" the middle sized one with cold, blue eyes cut off the taller blonde, giving him a death stare

"You're even worse than I am, you think trolls exist, you Norwegian fu-"

"I'm sowwy Awthurr" said the littlest one, looking up at Arthur with big, violet eyes. Arthur giggled at how cute his speech was.

"It's fine you guys. It was an accident" said Arthur

"Well then Artie, since you seem to be okay let's go out and play with Gilbert and Antonio" said Ralph, for some reason leaving Francis out of his sentence

"Not until I get these guys' names, Ralph"

"Don't worry, we're going the same way as you, we'll talk on the way. I'm Mathias"

"I'm Lukas and this is Emil" said the Norwegian, gesturing to the smaller boy

"Nice to meet you, I'm Arthur, as I'm sure Ralph has told you"

"He also told us you sleep with that green bunny every night and that you have a tea fetish and a whole lotta other things!" said Mathias

Arthur glared at Ralph, and from that moment on, our Australian friend knew that his dear cousin would have his revenge.

"I do not have a tea fetish! I just really, really like it. _Drinking _it, I mean"

"Sure ya do! I really like drinking beer!" said the Dane. The others drifted into their own conversation after seeing that Mathias might go on another rant about how fantastic beer is.

"How old did you say you were?"

"Fourteen. Why?"

"You're too young to drink!"

"So? I like beer."

"…Whatever, go ruin your brain with alcohol, silly boy"

"When you decide you're old enough to drink, ya have to come to the pub with me!"

"Why?"

"So I can spread the love"

"If I ever see you with alcohol, I'm taking it away from you"

"Fair enough, but you're going to have to pry it from my cold, dead hands!" said Mathias grabbing a bottle of alcohol from his coat and running away

"It's on!" said Arthur, running after him

"What just happened?" said Lukas, obviously confused

"Friendship happened, mate"

"You're so strange" said Emil

"And cheesy" added Lukas

"You two smell like fish" said Ralph deciding to get in on the action and running after Mathias with Arthur.


	4. Chapter 4

Arthur never did get that alcohol off Mathias. What can he say? The Dane can run. He did manage to get sick. Possibly from the rain that came later in the afternoon or possibly from being locked out of the dorm by Ralph, Antonio, Gilbert and Francis that night. Ralph had gotten the three to 'sleep over' (if you can call it that. Everyone except the Italians stayed in the same building out the back of the house) and they all decided that it would be a fabulous idea to take a sleeping Arthur out of his warm bed and leave him outside in the mud with his only his blanket and bunny for warmth, the wankers.

In the morning, Arthur was rather surprised that he was still alive and breathing, as were the stupid wankers who put him out there in the first place.

"Dude you're awesome!" said Gilbert.

"You wankers!" Arthur tried and failed to stand up "take me inside, I can't stand up."

"Okay, Arturo" said Antonio smiling and picking up the smaller boy.

"Don't call me that, you fucking Spaniard" said Arthur, sneezing, coughing, then closing his eyes, with the intention of going to sleep but failing to because of a loud, self proclaimed 'god of awsome'.

"Awww, you're learning how to use naughty words!"

"Shut it you bastard German"

"Hey! Hey! Why's Artie look so sick?" questioned a voice that could only belong to Alfred. Arthur groaned.

"Because these twats left me outside all night" Arthur said, eyes closed.

"Oh! Cool!" said Alfred following them into Arthur and Ralph's bedroom.

"Just tell me what the time is, you douche nozzles" said Arthur, getting increasingly pissed off. He wanted to know if he could have a wash and get ready for school in time.

"I don't know brah. Guess!" said Ralph.

"TELL ME THE FUCKING TIME YOU GODDAMNED WANKERS"

"About seven o'clock, lapin" Francis said, unknowingly saving them all from a slow and painful death.

"Good. And I'm not your rabbit, Francis. Now help me walk, I need a shower and new clothes" said Arthur after being set down on his bed.

"I can do better than that, lapin. I could shower _with _you"

"You need professional help, Francis" said Ralph.

"You're so funny-"said Francis, about to give a witty retort when he was cut off by Arthur.

"Get me my fuckin' clothes." said Arthur, directing it at no one in particular.

"Okay, Arturo" said Antonio, looking in the wardrobe "wow, everything's so neat~ you're clothes are all *gasp* _folded"_ after looking at the clothes in astonishment for a few moments he got to what he was supposed to doand plopped a white shirt, a tie, a coat and some pants on the bed.

"Thank you" Arthur tried to get up again, this time with more success "I think I can take myself to the bathroom" he said, grabbing his clothes and walking out slowly.

"Dude, why do you think he couldn't walk right?"

"Dunno man. It's one of life's great mysteries"

Arthur, of course, knew the reason. He had had an extremely nasty fall when he'd tried to get into one of the higher windows. You'd think he'd be smart enough to not do that, but when you're tired and cold your judgement becomes slightly impaired.

He walked into the shower and started to think about things. Things like how good washing mud out of your hair is, how he was going to kill the ones who brought on the mud in the first place and postcards and what to put on them to send to his friend back in London. Arthur tuned off the tap, dried himself off and threw on his clothes.

After walking out into the hallway of his dorm he suddenly felt extremely cold. Soldiering on, he made it to the front door of the main house where Ralph and Alfred were waiting for him.

"No school for you today Artie" said Alfred.

"Yeah, Alvise found out what happened somehow and he gave out punishments to each of us, Gilbert and Francis have to clean the dishes for the next two months while me and Antonio do the gardening" said Ralph.

"So you have to go to bed now~" said Alvise, jumping up from behind Ralph and Alfred.

" WHATTHEFU-"

"Off you go Arthur~" he said, cutting Ralph off

"But… I want to go to school…"

"You're so pommy, Arthur~ just chill and get better!" Ralph exclaimed, still recovering from the shock of Alvise being a creepy mo'fo.

"Bye Arthur! I hope you get better!" Alfred said just before leaving

"I never said I was sick either…" said Arthur.

The children of the orphanage had all started to leave the house at this point, most had walked out the front door already.

"Bastard, just look at yourself in the mirror and you'll see why we say 'get well soon'" said Lovino as he left. Arthur started to cough. Lovino stopped to pat him on the back "I'll get Feli to make you pasta after school if you want to eat" Lovino started to walk again.

"Why not make it yourself?"

"Can't be fucked!" Lovino shouted as he walked through the big metal gates of the orphanage.

Arthur heard a large noise come from upstairs. The house had been completely empty (exept for Arthur) since about fifteen minutes earlier when every kid had gone to school and Alvise said he had shopping to do in town with Kurt. When Arthur asked what he was shopping for Alvise just shook his head and said that it was a 'super magic amazing surprise for everyone'. So Arthur was alone. And there were some clunks coming from upstairs. Being a rational person, he just assumed there was an open window hitting the wall or something, so he went back to his dorm and slept for a he woke up and found himself unable to go back to sleep, he decided to explore the house, familiarise himself with layout and whatnot. Of course, unless he was invited in he wouldn't go into other people's rooms, so that just left the dining room, the kitchen, the bathrooms, the garden and all the storage closets. His leg hurt but he was twelve now, he could tough it out. He was an _extremely_ manly genleman after all.

The garden was rather big. It had a picnic table placed near a huge tree with a tire swing, flower beds, smaller trees, a tool shed and one gnome that looked rather lonely by itself.

The kitchen and bathrooms looked how they usually look. They were extremely clean with white tiles everywhere.

The dining room seemed to have nothing but red furniture for some reason and the storage closets (big surprise) had things and dust in them.

There was one storage closet left to check and Arthur had yet to find the source of the clunking noise, of course the clunk could've come from a bedroom. Opening the door, he noticed how hard it was to turn the handle, the lack of dust in his face, then the stairs, the shiny, clean stairs.

Arthur looked at them for a moment. The sign on the door said 'storage cupboard' so why…?

After a few seconds of internal debate Arthur decided to climb the stairs.

At the top was a room. Quite a nice one at that, it had book shelves on every wall that wasn't covered in pictures of princesses, knights and creatures. It also had a rather large amount of stuffed animals on the floor. But in the middle of it all was a _huge_ bed and sitting on the bed, eyes on Arthur was a boy who looked about the same age as Arthur, he had shaggy strawberry blond hair, red eyes and rather large canine teeth.

"Hi! I'm Vlad! I'm surprised you found here, not a whole lot of people go looking in storage closets in the middle of the night!" said the boy cheerfully.

Arthur coughed "I'm Arthur. What do you mean the middle of the night? It's 12pm."

The boy, Vlad, looked out the window to his right. "Oh! Of course! It's just last time I checked, it was 12_am_. Nice to meet you Arthur! Do you want to read the tale of Ileana Cosânzeana with me? It's my favorite!"

"What now? What's that?"

"My favorite story of all time! It's about a beautiful princess called Ileana Cosânzeana and… and I love it!"

Picking up on Vlad's foreign accent, Arthur asked him "Is it in English?"

"No… It's in Romanian."

_'So that's where he's from. Good to know.' _Thought Arthur.

"So do you wanna read it?"

"Sorry, I can't read Romanian."

"Too bad… I have other stories that are in English!"

"That would be nice" said Arthur sitting on the ground.

"Hey, Arthur?" said Vlad flipping through a book

"Yes?"

"Are you unwell?"

"Yeah, I got locked out of my room last night" Arthur began to cough violently. For some reason a voice that sounded suspiciously a lot like Ralph rang through his head they went like "You'll only feel sick if you think about it brah" Arthur groaned. His cousin was infecting him with Bogan (A/N: believe me, Bogan-ness is infectious).

Arthur had looked in the mirror after he woke up and thought that he looked smashing, or as smashing as one can look when they're sick, so it made him sad how Vlad had guessed so quickly. At this rate he mightn't go to school tomorrow either. Sad.

"That's not good; you should go back to bed" said Vlad.

"I'd like to, but we won't be able to read stories together if I do"

"True, but I don't want a new friend to get sicker" Arthur was touched. He'd had another friend now! that made about… three, obviously excluding the three (four?) wankers who made him sick if they could count as friends.

"I'll go then. Bye Vlad" Arthur began the short but long journey back to his room.

"Bye Arthur! I hope you get better! If you don't I'll be unhappy." Vlad waved him off dramatically, dabbing at his eyes with a hanky.

_'Strange boy' _thought Arthur, closing the door to the stairs.

To think, not once did Arthur find it strange for a Romanian kid with no sense of time, red irises and large canines to be living at the top of some probably purposely hidden stairs.

**ERMAHGERD I LURV U GAIZ. But really though, I'm so happy~ 10 people following this story! You guys are the bestest!*happy dance*  
**


	5. Chapter 5

**My bros! I'm sorry about all the grammatical errors in this fic, I'll fix them someday~ Please, please review, it makes me extremely happy.**

That night at dinner, Arthur sat with an Austrian boy called Roderich. Arthur found that the two of them had a lot in common, but at the same time not. Roderich liked cake, Arthur liked tea. Roderich didn't like marine life, Arthur couldn't swim. The two of them also had a dislike for loud, albino Germans

"Do you have any hobbies?" asked Arthur

"I like to play the piano, make Art and bake cakes. You?"

"Hmm…" Arthur pondered it for a second "I like to sew."

"Excuse me" Roderich said, picking up his dirty plates, dumping them in front of Gilbert and Francis.

"Clean them." Roderich said staring at them coldly for a few seconds he then rejoined Arthur.

Arthur just stared for a few moments, laughed, coughed and laughed again.

Francis and Gilbert went into the kitchen with everyone's unclean plates in hand.

The Austrian yawned "I need my beauty sleep, so I'll have to say goodnight to you Arthur"

The concept of Roderich needing beauty sleep made Arthur smile and giggled some more. He hadn't laughed this much in a long time.

"Sleep well Roderich" said Arthur, who then proceeded to cover his mouth and cough.

"I intend to" replied Roderich, walking out of the dining room.

Arthur took his dishes into the kitchen, put them down, pulled up a chair and started to inquire as to why they were such dicks.

"Why did you lock me out?" he said, giving the two fifteen year olds an icy stare.

"I'm not sure lapin. We saw you sleeping and we just wanted to see how you'd look after a night of-"

"Francis! Shut the fuck up! Don't say 'we' it's _'I'_ as in _'I Francis am a creepy perv who has a thing for Arthur three days after meeting him because that's just how I roll. I also think that Gilbert is awesome.'_ I just thought it would be fun to see the look on your face, I didn't _mean_ for you to get sick. I didn't think you would."

"What sort of an imitation was _that_? It was truly terrible. You should have sounded sexier and less German" said Francis who then started to give Gilbert a lecture on how he'd failed to capture his sexy voice correctly.

"Why would..." Arthur paused, suddenly caring a whole lot less "You guys are idiots." Said Arthur, walking out of the kitchen not wanting to hear Francis say the word 'sexy' five times a sentence for the length of his rant on 'sexiness'.

Arthur sighed. He was now sitting in the garden with the lone gnome he had found near a bed of roses, just watching the clouds become less and less visible as the night sky began to light up with stars. The gnome still looked as lonely as ever. Arthur was thinking of going and getting another gnome to keep it company. He recalled a book he had read to Ralph and Peter about gnomes when he was eight. 'The life of gnomes' was its name if he recalled correctly. One page stuck out in his mind, there was a rather well executed picture of a lady gnome sitting with two gnome children on her lap, they all had such happy faces and long, pointy hats, it was hard not to giggle at the happy thought. 'It's good to be in the cuddle circle' it said beneath them. Arthur had remembered this page in particular because Ralph and Peter decided to hug Arthur's legs until they all had to sleep, claiming that they had made a cuddle circle of their own. Sadly, the book had burned in a fire not three days before the rest of Arthur's family (excluding Ralph, who was safely waiting for the family with Arthur in a nearby train station) and possessions (excluding mint bunny, the cricket bat and the…stuffed crocodile the two boys had decided to hold onto no matter what after the fire that had obliterated half of their home) had perished in the smouldering hole that was once (half of) their home.

He heard the door from the kitchen open, then the clacking of boots on the small cobblestone path close to where Arthur sat. Arthur looked over to see who was passing, only to see Alfred and an Alfred lookalike with longer hair.

"Heya Artie!" said Alfred, while his doppleganger remained silent.

"Hello... Alfred"

"This is Mattie, my brother! He can't make friends 'cause he's from Canadia so I'm introducing him to everyone!" Arthur immidiatly felt sorry for Alfred's brother. Not because he 'couldn't make friends' but for having someone as... special... as Alfred for a sibling.

"H-hello Arthur, I'm Mathew Williams. Nice to meet you"

**A/N: **

**I'm sorry I'm so lazy~ in the future I'll try to update before my parents decide to drag me on a week long holiday up ****Kosciusko** again.


	6. Chapter 6

Before Arthur could formally introduce himself to the quiet boy, Alfred interrupted.

"Dude, you're so quiet no one can hear you. You're too polite, man. Stop being so Canadian… ooh look, a tire swing, let's go play on that, c'mon you two!" Said the loud American child

Arthur mentally noted Alfred's extremely short attention span before the boy (rather unexpectedly) dragged Arthur and Matthew by the arms through the muddy grass to the tire swing with great speed.

_'What just happened!? How in the bloody hell is he so strong!?'_ thought Arthur, standing up to look at the damage done to his once clean clothes. Mud. Mud everywhere. Really, Arthur was getting a bit sick of getting covered in mud.

"I-I'm really s-sorry about my brother. He does this, please forgive him." Whispered Matthew

Arthur, having forgotten that Matthew was standing near him, suddenly knew how Ralph felt when people (read: Alvise) just appeared next to him.

_'It's creepy how they do that'_ thought Arthur, calming down.

Arthur crouched down to get at eye level with Alfred's twin "You shouldn't have to apologise for someone else's actions." Arthur glanced at Alfred climbing on the tire swing "And I didn't get to say this earlier; I'm Arthur Kirkland, not 'Artie'. Nice to meet you Matthew" the two boys shook hands.

"Are you two done chatting? I wanna be pushed on the tire!" yelled (normal talk for him maybe?) Alfred. Matthew looked at Arthur. He obviously wanted to swing with Alfred. Arthur sighed. What is it that makes tire swings so fantastic?

"Yeah sure, I'll push the two of you all the way to the moon. I'm just that strong" Arthur rolled up his sleeves.

"When we do go to the moon, the first one to go will be American!" said Alfred

"Nu-uh! They'll be Canadian!" said Matthew almost talking loudly enough for his voice to pass as normal volume.

"I think you're both wrong; they'll be English!" said Arthur, laughing and pushing the two eight year olds as high as he could.

After about an hour of swinging and rolling around in the mud, the three boys had tired (puns!) themselves out and were sitting under a tree in the partial darkness with the lights from the moon and house as their light sources. Arthur checked his watch; 9:00 pm. The two boys were falling asleep on his lap.

"Mom and Dad will be here to pick us up soon…" started Alfred

"They will, they will. I wonder where they are, it's late." finished Matthew

"Indeed. They'll be here soon, I'm sure." Said Arthur

"Hey, Arthur?"

"Yes, Alfred?"

"Where's your family?" he asked drowsily

Arthur pondered it for a few seconds. He didn't know the answer, not truly. All that was left of their bodies was six feet underground in a graveyard somewhere in London, and he didn't want make these two sad. Also he doubted they understood the concept of death. Very few eight year olds do.

"Well… they might be somewhere, they're just not here" That was really all he could say.

"You sound sad…" said Matthew. Alfred had already fallen asleep and Mathew was on the verge of doing the same when the tall man that looked suspiciously a lot like Alfred came out into the garden, greeted Arthur quietly, and took the sleeping children away.

Arthur yawned; he was getting rather sleepy too.

He had been having so much fun that he'd forgotten about his leg. Even though he'd said he was tough and manly he'd been trying to put as little weight on it as possible to make it less painful. And as I said earlier, he'd forgotten about it somehow, so when he tried to stand up, he collapsed. Sitting up against the tree, he pulled up his trouser leg to reveal a nasty blue-purple bruise spanning most of his shin that wasn't there this morning.

He must've seen Arthur from the kitchen window or something, because seconds later Antonio came running outside.

"Aw shit, Arturo that looks really bad"

"It _feels_ really bad, _Anthony"_

At that moment the Spaniard hoisted Arthur up and placed the Brit's arm over his shoulder.

"What are you doing?" asked Arthur

"Helping you walk" replied Antonio as they started a slow pace back to the dorm.

"Why not carry me?" asked Arthur

"I'm tired, I've been gardening all afternoon~" replied Antonio

"Lazy arse"

"Says the one who needs help to walk"

"I can't help that-"

"I'm helping you."

"… Fine…" Arthur knew he was being sort of unfair, but he didn't like Antonio. At all.

When they got into the upstairs dorm hallway near the bathroom, Arthur requested to be let go so he could wash the mud off his face and hands. His hair would have to wait till morning.

Antonio sighed, letting him go "I'm sorry, Artu-" He had to stop and correct himself "I'm sorry, Arthur. I'm sure Francis and Gilbert are too. I hope you get less angry at us eventually. Everyone will be a lot happier" With that he walked down the hall and into the room he shared with Francis.

Having cleaned up, brushed his teeth, hobbled back to his room and changed into his pyjamas, Arthur was ready to sleep. He was coughing a lot less now; he just hoped his leg wouldn't stop him from going to school.

**A/N: I forgot to do this before but I'm making a list of things that shouldn't exist but do in this fic. I can think of one thing so far:**

**Italian Ninjas. The worst kind of ninja.  
**


	7. Chapter 7

**I… I'm speechless. I'm just so happy people enjoy this (even if it's only a little) I'm starting school again, so less days off and whatnot, but I'll do as much of this as possible in my free time. Also, I'd really like to know who you guys want England to end up with in the future, because I love them all so much I can't decide ;3; and I'm just really unprepared for making an ending. I have to think ahead!**

Really, Arthur's leg hurt more than ever, but he wouldn't let that get between school and potential friends. He'd convinced Alvise to let him go, but getting there was a different matter. He ended up leaving early and limping most of the way. I say most because Lovino and Feliciano found him taking a short rest on the side of the path. When they found out about his leg, they decided to help him. Actually it was more Feliciano who decided to help, Lovino just walked with them and ended up taking over when Feliciano got too tired.

"So, it seems like you and your cousin are not the only new kids in town" said Lovino

"Is that so? I wouldn't think a place as isolated as this would get many new people too often" replied Arthur

"It usually doesn't. This place was basically deserted before the war; the orphanage was just nonno's house back then too. He started to take in children with no family only after me and Feli's parents died. I guess he wanted to 'give them a loving home' or some shit like that" said Lovino

"Is that really what happened? I don't remember a whole lot from before Ludwig came to stay" said Feliciano

"You don't remember anything ever." Deadpanned Lovino

"Ve~ that's not true!"

"What did we eat for breakfast this morning?"

"Umm… pasta?" at this Lovino facepalmed

"No, dumbass"

Arthur just stopped listening to the two Italians bicker and started thinking about this and that

_'Hmm… I'd quite fancy a cup of tea. I haven't had one in a rather long time…' _soon, he started to think about friends, how he'd made so many in just a few days. He quite liked it out here. There were hardly any annoyingly loud people. It was so… peaceful.

"…ey, hey Arthur. We're here. WAKE THE FUCK UP, WE'RE NEARLY AT SCHOOL" at this Arthur snapped out of his day dreams. One thing caught his eye in the muddy field next to the school, one mop of bright red hair. Seconds later, the boy who owned said hair looked up at Arthur, grinned with mischievous glint in his green eyes and started to run at a startling speed towards Arthur. The Italians had somehow yet to notice the tall boy quickly approaching until it was too late and Arthur had been snatched from the Italians and pulled into a bone crushing hug.

"Hey Artie! How're ya doin'?" said the boy with bright red hair and an extremely strong Scottish accent.

"F-fine Allistor. Please put me down" gasped out Arthur

"Oh. Yeah" said Allistor putting Arthur down "Sorry Artie"

"You could've settled for a postcard, you know. I _was_ planning on sending one" Said Arthur after regaining his balance and stumbling a little. Before the conversation could advance any further, Feliciano tugged on Arthur's coat and said "If we don't go now we'll be late~"

"Oh, okay." Arthur started limping toward Lovino

"Did ya hurt yourself?" Inquired Allistor

"Yeah" said Arthur

Allistor crouched on the grass in front of Arthur "Hop on" he said

"What?" Arthur was slightly confused. The Allistor he knew would have kicked his bruise and run off laughing like a maniac, okay, that was a bit of an exaggeration but you get the point

"Piggyback" Allistor then mumbled something. Arthur could only pick out the word 'favour'.

"Okay…?" said Arthur, warily getting on. Allistor got up and started following the Italians (one of whom was death staring him, but only a little).

Having wrapped his arms around Allistor's shoulders so he wouldn't fall off, Arthur started to ask questions.

"Why are you here?" Arthur asked

"Because I have to go to school too…?"

"Answer the question properly"

"No, that's really the reason, or at least part of it. My house and school were obliterated. When I heard ye'd moved out here I suggested we do the same to the family and they thought it was a great idea. So here I am."

"Fantastic. Why are you being so nice?"

"Because after this piggyback ride, ye owe me a favour"

"When did I ever agree to owe you a favour?"

"When ye got on my back" so that's what he'd been mumbling about. Fuck.

Arthur just sighed. He really should've seen this coming. If he didn't agree to it, he was pretty sure the Scottish boy would make his life and undamaged limbs painful "…Fine"

"Good, Good" said Allistor as he placed Arthur down before walking through the double doors of the school. Classes were about to start.

The day was fairly normal, the work was easy (for Arthur) and he met a few new people, A Swiss boy named Vash and his adopted younger sister Lili, a sleepy greek boy called Hercules who seemed to sleep enough for him to be diagnosed with narcolepsy and a Hungarian girl named Elizabeta who smiled creepily every time Arthur chatted with Allistor, Francis, Gilbert, Lovino or Antonio.

All in all Arthur had a pretty fun day (save for witnessing Elizabeta's creepy, creepy smile).

**I need reveiws to live in happy.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Woo! As always I'm really, really happy because of you guys! Even if it rained and I got locked out of my house just now. My school books are sort of cactus. I'm really sorry I haven't updated much, I was wrestling with my friend and one of my hands got crushed. **

For once, the afternoon was warm and sunny. School had finished for the day and most of the kids (excluding Ivan, who was happily watering some sunflowers nearby) were sitting in a big circle, chatting about their lives.

"So Francis, Why are you always out so late?" Asked Feliciano

"Well, few months ago, I met this lovely lady in her twenties, I've been trying to win her over, and yesterday we ended up fu-" Lovino covered his little brother's ears and started to yell at Francis for almost polluting Feliciano's mind. Francis went quiet and Antonio smiled at Arthur and Ralph (or rather in their general direction, they just happened to be sitting opposite the Spaniard). For once Gilbert was being quiet, Arthur found this strange and glanced around.

"Where's Gilbert?" he speculated aloud.

"An excellent question, lapin! But sadly, one I do not know the answer to" said Francis

"You should go look for him. He is your 'best friend' isn't he?" said Antonio. Arthur had forgotten about that little detail because he had no reason to remember it. Gilbert was never going to be an amazing best friend in the first place.

"Oh! Oh! Luddy should go too!" added Feliciano not quite understanding that no one wanted to go get Gilbert for Francis and Antonio.

Ludwig looked at Feliciano. The German looked ready to punch the small Italian in the throat.

"Why should I? He'll come back eventually, it's not like he'll die if he's not around here" said Ludwig

"I don't want to go find him either" said Arthur losing intrest in the conversation fast having suddenly found the grass extremely interesting.

"I really think you should" insisted Antonio

"Yes lapin, you really should" Francis said immediately after Antonio.

After that Arthur thought he heard Francis mumble "While you're gone we'll make plans for sexy times with the ladies" Arthur just ignored them and continued to stare into space.

"Please go?"

"Please?"

"You should go now"

"Yes, you should"

"SHUT UP!" shouted Arthur, immediately silencing all chatter from anyone in the circle. There was silence and he could think for a little bit.

Arthur sighed. He was getting tired of these two. When he was bigger and stronger than they were he'd make _them _fetch Gilbert. He sighed again. Maybe someday.

"Fine, but this is only to get you two to stop talking" said Arthur, giving in and glaring at the two teens.

"I'll go too…" said Ludwig

"Oh, you don't have to" said Arthur as he got up.

"My brother will do something bad if I'm not supervising" Ludwig deadpanned. The two boys began to walk slowly away from the group.

"What sort of bad thing did you have in mind?" inquired Arthur.

Ludwig paused "I'm not sure. I just know he'll do something bad" they were nearing the back of the dormitory when they heard some 'pii' sounds along with a voice that was speaking loudly in German. Ludwig went bright red and facepalmed, supposedly after hearing some of what was being said.

"Do you think we found him?" said Arthur with a grin at Ludwig's reaction to whatever Gilbert had just said.

"Definitely" replied Ludwig as they neared his brother

What they found Gilbert doing was not so much surprising as it was funny. Gilbert was surrounded by adult hens and little yellow chicks, some were sitting on him, others just milled around in the background. But that's not the best part. It would seem that Gilbert had fitted every last chick and chicken with a small black hat.

Arthur could barely keep himself from laughing "Wh-what the hell!? All the chickens have hats!" Arthur was now laughing his head off, having fallen to the ground still laughing. When Gilbert finally noticed the two, he blushed, Ludwig just grimaced.

"Gilbert. Why do these chickens have hats?" Ludwig said calmly, gesturing to the chickens.

Gilbert just cackled, having ridded himself of the initial embarrassment of being found whispering sweet nothings to a bunch of chickens with hats. "Because they're awesome!" he yelled.

Arthur had gotten up and had nearly stopped giggling "Well, that solves the mystery of the missing German. Come on Gilbert, we're going back" he said.

Ludwig just scooped his brother off the ground and threw him over his shoulder "It's faster this way." Ludwig said.

"No, no! Wait! I have one last thing to do!" exclaimed Gilbert. Ludwig set him down and Gilbert picked up one of the small, yellow chicks and held it to his ear. Very slowly the chick began to cheep. But the sound the bird made wasn't right; as soon as the chick opened its beak a very manly sounding "Pii!" was heard. Gilbert just nodded and said to Arthur "Gilbird wants to know who the red haired dude is"

"What" Arthur was confused

"The Scottish guy" said Gilbert

"… Why?" Arthur was still very confused

"Just because"

Arthur put his hand out for the chick to hop onto. When he was at eye level with the small yellow bird he said "That's an odd question for someone of your species to ask. But to answer you, _Gilbird, _I _think_ he and I are related. He's my second cousin once removed or something. We've been friends for a while." the bird chirped again and Arthur gave it back to Gilbert

"He said that clears up everything"

Ludwig coughed to get their attention "let's go, I don't want to have to spend more time than necessary over here"

"Don't you like my sexy chicks Luddy?" said Gilbert. Ludwig just groaned and walked ahead out of earshot.

"Hey Gilbert, why did the chickens have hats?" asked Arthur

"To annoy Ludwig of course! He hates silly, impractical things the most!" cackled Gilbert

"You're a wanker, you know."

"In your opinion yes, but I'm still awesome"

When they were finally nearing where everyone had sat, the boys noticed that everyone was gone.

"Well that was a waste of time" Before Arthur could complain more, he was tackled from behind and dragged away from the two Germans by an unknown person. He tried to get out of this person's grasp but it only resulted in futile struggling. when they arrived inside the dorm and into a room Arthur hadn't really noticed before, he was let go and the person spoke up.

"Hello, comrade" said Ivan

Well, this explains why Gilbert and Ludwig didn't try to save him.

**I'm sorry everyone, I'm going to have to leave this here. I'm also sorry if this chapter sucked, school has leeched me of my creativity *cries*.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Sorry I haven't updated in a while, I had family shit to deal with.**

"Hello comrade" said Ivan.

In this sort of a situation, Arthur _usually_ wouldn't be scared. Usually. But something about Ivan made him feel uneasy.

"W-what are you d-doing?" stammered Arthur. Ivan had wrapped his hands around Arthur's waist again so Arthur couldn't escape.

"Hug." said Ivan cheerfully

"We barely talk, why are you hugging me?"

"So we can be friends. Hugs make friends, da?"

"You could hug me anytime, why did you drag me away from my… um… friends?"

"Why are you scared? I promise I won't hurt you. Unless you disappoint me" Ivan's smile was gone. Clearly, Arthur wasn't doing a very good job of masking his fear.

"That doesn't help. Answer my question"

"Arthur should _not _tell me what to do" Ivan's body heat suddenly dropped at an alarming rate. It was if Arthur was being crushed by a big pile of snow. He shivered.

"I'm sorry Arthur, am I cold? Too bad" Began Ivan "Oh! I remember what I wanted! I want to show you something good. I'll show it to you first because you're weak and won't tell anyone about it." Arthur realised he was being threatened by an eleven year old. He also realised that he would probably end up severely hurt if he told anyone about this 'something' before Ivan.

"Yeah, fine, whatever" said Arthur, just wanting out of this psychopaths hold.

"Good! Let us go!" When Ivan smiled the room began to heat up again.

"Go? Where is this 'something' you wish to share?"

"Down the road and around corner" Said Ivan as he got up and opened the door so they could leave.

As uncharacteristic it may seem, Arthur wasn't wearing shoes, he figured Ivan wouldn't let him go back to his room to fetch them, so he just decided to go without them, he'd just have to keep an eye out for things that could injure him. The two boys walked through the house, passing no one (save for Lovino and Feliciano, who were hiding under a table quite conspicuously).

When they'd left the building and started down the dirt road, Arthur could see Ralph glaring at Ivan through one of the open windows of the main house. Arthur just gave him a smile and a wave and went to see this 'something'. Whether or not he'd come back from seeing 'something' was another matter.

As Ivan had said this something was grand. It was a field of big, happy sunflowers. Arthur was flabbergasted at how many there were.

"It's rather Impressive. Why are there so many here anyway?" asked Arthur. He was significantly more impressed than he let on.

"I planted them." Replied Ivan

"Wow. It must've taken a long time"

"Yup, two years"

"Really?! How long have you been here?"

"About that long"

"Do you like it here?"

"It's not my home, but it's… liveable."

The conversation didn't continue much longer as Ivan had gone into the field to get some nice sunflowers to bring home for himself. Arthur just sat on the grass and waited for Ivan to finish. He looked up at the clouds and just thought about things. His leg still hurt him, but the bruise was healing, he just tripped every now and again and that could just be general clumsiness.

"It's time to go" said Ivan. He had one arm full of sunflowers.

"Okay." Said Arthur

Ivan and Arthur walked back rather slowly in a comfortable silence until Arthur's leg gave out. Arthur fell flat on his face, scraping his cheek and cutting his hand on a sharp rock in the process.

Ivan poked Arthur as he lay on the ground "Are you okay?" Ivan asked not at all worried.

"I can't say I didn't see something like this coming." Mumbled Arthur "I'm fine thank you" he got up and began walking the rest of the way home.

"You get hurt a lot, da?" said Ivan

"Yes. More so since I got here" replied Arthur

"I'll carry you." Said Ivan rather unexpectedly

"Wha-" Arthur didn't have much time to react; he was already being carried bridal style.

"If you fall again you'll get hurt again. I don't like it when people get hurt by things that aren't me" Ivan poked Arthur's injured face and smiled darkly when Arthur winced.

_'He changes personalities rather quickly, doesn't he?' _thought Arthur.

Before long, they had arrived back at the house where Ralph was waiting at the gate to snatch Arthur away from Ivan, which he did. Before Arthur really knew what was happening, the eight year old was running away from Ivan, dragging Arthur behind him. Ivan just smiled and waved.

_'I should start paying more attention to what's happening around me next time'_

Ralph and Arthur were now in the kitchen. Arthur sat as Ralph searched for some Band-Aids.

"Are you sure this is where they keep the medical supplies?" asked Arthur

"Yup, the kitchen is closest to the garden, where everyone falls over and hurts themselves. Also, Alvise told me." Said Ralph. He rummaged through the cupboard for a few more seconds before pulling out a wicker box that contained disinfectant, Band-Aids and the like.

Ralph picked up a band aid and put one on top of a cut on the bridge of his nose.

"How did you get that?" asked Arthur

"A tree nicked me. How'd you get those?" Ralph gestured to Arthur's injuries as he looked through the box for some cotton.

"I fell."

"Bullshit"

"No really! The rocks on the road are sharp!"

Ralph, having found some cotton and other things to help Arthur, picked up the disinfectant and brought it all over to the kitchen table.

"I'll go get Ludwig. He's better at this sort of thing than I am" said Ralph

"You _are_ terrible at it." Arthur said jokingly

"Shut your face" Ralph replied, not being in a particularly good mood.

Ralph retrieved Ludwig and, feeling he had better things to do, left Arthur with Ludwig.

"I'm sorry" said Ludwig as he applied disinfectant to Arthur's face.

"For what? It's not your fault Ivan's scary."

"But you ended up getting hurt"

"Yes, but that's my fault, I fell over. It's fine."

Ludwig just grunted. He still felt guilty for letting Arthur get dragged away by someone who was probably insane.

Arthur just smiled at Ludwig after he was done dressing his injuries.

"Thank you, Ludwig" said Arthur, still smiling.

A blush dusted the German's cheeks "You're welcome" he said, glancing away at nothing in particular.

Arthur packed away all the supplies and left Ludwig to his thoughts.

**I really like reviews. Tell me who you want to win or no one will (kidding, but I'm going to have a tough time deciding…).**


	10. Chapter 10

"The wizard of Oz" said Ralph

"What about it?" Arthur questioned uninterestedly as he finished off the last pages of his book.

"Remember watching it with Allistor and Peter?"

It took Arthur a while to recall the colourful film; it had been about six years since he'd seen it, but he did indeed remember. It was among the first technicolour films he'd seen and he'd loved it with all his heart.

"Honestly, Ralph I'm surprised you remembered. You must've been just two at the time"

"I remember things I enjoy" Ralph said as he scribbled something down on a notepad.

It was a rainy winter afternoon in January. It was also Friday, so school had finished for the week. Everyone was inside due to the rain, and the room Arthur and Ralph were in was on the second floor, so the last thing the two boys expected to hear was a knock on the window.

*tap tap* went the knock *tap*

With a bored expression on his face, Ralph went to open the window, not letting go of his notepad.

He was met with a boy with shaggy blonde hair and red irises hanging upside down outside the window, large black bag in hand "Hello good sir. Is there a reason you've come knocking at our window, or is it just for funsies?" Ralph said in a mock British accent.

"Hiya Ralph! I'm Vladamir! I've come to read stories with your cousin! He said we could."

"Is there a reason you didn't use the door or what?"

"I can't use the door, silly! I haven't been invited in yet!" exclaimed the eccentric boy

"…Right. I'm just going to say you can come in, maybe that'll fix things" Ralph slammed the window and mouthed 'use the door now' to Vlad. Vlad disappeared, and a few seconds later there was a knock at the door.

Before opening the door Ralph said "You have a crazy weird friend, Artie." Arthur wasn't listening; instead he was comparing his friend's behaviour to that of a vampire. The reason Arthur was so 'vamp-aware' currently was because the book he had just read was about the habits and behaviours of magical creatures in alphabetical order, vampires being near the end. He decided that, at this moment, he didn't know Vlad very well and thus didn't know how he'd react to being asked if he was a soulless, bloodsucking demon. Arthur would rather not jeopardise his friendship with the strange boy.

"Arthur. Arthur. Arthur" Ralph waved his hand in front of his cousin's face.

"hm?" Arthur realised that Ralph was trying to talk to him.

"He's eyeing you like you're a well-cooked steak" Ralph gestured to Vlad, who was indeed watching Arthur rather intently.

"Oh."

"Yeah. Maybe you should do something."

"I can hear you~" Vlad said as he smiled (or more bared his teeth) "let's read stories now!" At this Ralph rolled his eyes and went back to scribbling things on his notepad

Arthur shivered "Okay, what do you want to read?" he said.

Vlad had a look of confusion on his face before his eyes widened and he began to rifle through the bag he'd brought. He got out an old looking copy of 'the wonderful wizard of Oz'.

"I heard you and Ralph talking about it, so I brought my copy. Now, read to me!" Said Vlad

"I thought you could read." Arthur said. They were probably the same age, so why would Arthur have to read to him?

"I can! But I want you to read to me!" said Vlad.

"Only if you tell me how old you are" If Arthur was going to read to him he'd have to give him information first.

"That's an odd request"

"No more odd than you asking me to read to you"

"Fine… I'm sixty-nine"

"Your _real _age"

"One-hundred and nine"

"You're a mean person"

"Read to me."

Arthur groaned "Fine"

"Yay!" Vlad sat himself down next to Arthur so their shoulders were touching. Clearly he had no sense of personal space. Arthur heard a stomach growl.

Ralph was still rapidly writing things down, so he didn't see (or pretended not to see) most of what happened next. Vlad tackled Arthur to the ground and nipped his neck. Not enough to draw blood, but enough to make Arthur a tiny little bruise that looked suspiciously a lot like a hickey.

Ralph just glanced over, said "What the shit Arthur, not while I'm around" and left the room.

"U-um w-what are you d-doing?" stammered Arthur. His cousin's behaviour was weird, but not nearly as weird as the almost-definitely-a-vampire on top of him.

"I'm hungry and you're food." Said Vlad, sitting on Arthur and going in for another bite.

"Can you not?!" exclaimed Arthur.

"No"

"Can you wait a while? I don't want to be food yet" Arthur thought if he couldn't persuade him he could at least prolong the time 'till his demise

Vlad looked up at Arthur just before he bit him "How long are we talking?" asked Vlad

"Umm… when I'm… twenty-three!" _'That's a long time and I'll be old and disgusting by then; he won't want to eat me' _thought Arthur.

"So… ten years?"

"Yes"

"I can wait. Ten years isn't long. Let's read" Vlad got up and passed Arthur the book. The two boys began to take turns reading as Arthur was visibly shaken up by the whole 'Ima eat u now k?' thing. Vlad was happy to read to Arthur after a few minutes of stuttered sentences and nervous mispronunciations (though sometimes when Vlad wasn't paying attention to what he was saying, he'd begin to read the text out in Romanian, which made Arthur very confused).

People out in the hall had heard the thumps of Arthur being tackled.

"Ralph what's Arthur doing in there with the creepy Romanian?" asked Gilbert, reaching out for the doorknob.

"Reading stories." Replied Ralph "But if I were you I wouldn't go in."

**Sorry I didn't update last week, I was being lazy (again). As always, please review and vote on who should win. Aw man, I hate time skips but I'll have to do one soon-ish *cries* Happy moustaches to all my thirty-one lovely following… story… people. **


	11. Chapter 11

Arthur tried to sleep; really he did, but a rather large group of noisy, noisy teenagers in the garden getting hammered seemed to be actually _trying_ to keep him awake. Ralph had dealt with the noise by moving to another room further away from the noise, but Arthur had to be stubborn. Arthur chose to stay in his room, which he soon realised may not have been the brightest of ideas.

Soon, the noises quieted down enough for Arthur to almost sleep, but not quite. He suspected that all the boys who had been outside were going back to their rooms to retire and, Arthur hoped, wake up in the morning with terrible hangovers from the no doubt cheap alcohol that they had been drinking.

Arthur heard footsteps outside his door (which he had forgotten to lock). Said door began to open and incoherent words began to spew from the lips of the intruders who Arthur recognised as Francis and Antonio. Strangely, it sounded like they understood each other somehow.

_'I've had enough of uninvited visitors' _thought Arthur as he sat up and glared at the two.

Francis and Antonio smiled. Arthur couldn't see much in the dull light but from what he _could_ see, the expressions the teens were sporting could only really be described as 'rape faces'. Arthur was rather terrified of what was to come after looking at them.

They continued to smile. They walked close enough to Arthur that he could smell the alcohol on their breath. They kneeled on the bed, wrapped their arms around Arthur, got as close to his face as possible and fainted.

Maybe fainted isn't the right word, more fell asleep very suddenly.

Arthur struggled and wiggled and tried to break free but he failed unsurprisingly.

_'I need to get stronger'_ he thought, giving one last punch to Francis' arm.

He continued thinking. There was no more noise. He was warm. Why couldn't he fall asleep? Was it the stench of alcohol and Frenchman? Possibly…

Ironically, Arthur had just fallen asleep while thinking about not being able to sleep.

"Hey Artie, wake up bro. Wake up. Wake up. Wake…" Ralph was shaking Arthur and chatting into his ear trying to wake him up.

"Shut it you stupid Bogan, I'm awake" Arthur said. Arthur didn't like being woken up for undoubtedly stupid reasons.

"Whoa Artie, I think you're getting grumpier lately" Said Ralph

"I'm not grumpier, I'm just tired"

"No… you're def grumpier"

"…def?"

"Definitely"

"Stop the slang Ralph. We can do without it." Arthur glanced around "Where are the cunt faces?"

"Who?" Ralph paused "Oh, Them! They went away to puke about an hour ago and didn't come back." Ralph lied. He'd actually chased them out of the room at five o'clock in the morning, as he was afraid they would have done something to Arthur when they woke up, but Arthur didn't need to know that. Ralph placed a hand on his chin "Now what was I going to tell you… hmm… Alvise wants us to go pick up this week's food from town, see? He gave me a list and a wheelie bag thing to put the stuff in" Arthur glanced at the wheelie bag thing Ralph was holding.

"Is that so? Alright…" Arthur rubbed his eyes. He didn't want to go but Ralph couldn't go alone. Feliciano and Lovino overheard the exchange in the hall.

"I want to come too" Said Feliciano, making Arthur jump. He hadn't noticed the two Italians that were currently sitting on the end of his bed. He must be more tired than he'd previously thought.

"Yeah… I need to talk to Vash and Lili anyway" said Feliciano.

"What do they have to do with going shopping?" asked Arthur.

"Ve~ they work in the bakery with their parents~" Said Feliciano with a very strange smile. To Arthur it was like there was nothing behind his eyes (At least when you could see his eyes. Really though how does he keep them closed?).

"If you want to come, it's fine. You should show me around town while we're there, too" said Arthur.

Feliciano beamed. Lovino frowned.

"I'm coming too." Lovino paused "But only to make sure Feli doesn't do anything retarded" he said.

"If they're going, can I not?"said Ralph.

"You're a lazy person, aren't you?" said Arthur. Ralph just stared at him for a few seconds, shouted 'fuck this shit' and fled.

"You're cousin is a dick" said Lovino.

"I'm aware"

"Ve~ but he has things to do. He made friends with a boy from…nuu ze-a-land… I'm sure he wants to spend time with his new friend" said Feliciano

"Oh really? That's new. I recall him never wanting much to do with New Zealanders. Maybe he warmed up to them finally because their countries are so similar" As Arthur said this, a chill ran down his spine. He thought he heard Ralph scream 'AUSTRALIA IS NOT like fucking Sheep Island!' but he just shrugged it off.

Arthur picked up the wheelie bag and the list "Shall we go?" he said

"Yay! Let's go~ Let's go~" chanted Feliciano. Lovino continued to frown as they walked. Feliciano was acting strange, but he couldn't put his finger on what was wrong with his wimpy younger brother.

**I'm sorry the update was later than usual :( I'm thinking of doing another worldxEngland, but probably only after this one is done. I'm also sorry about the quality of recent chapters, I'm just a bit of a n00b with writing, hopefully I'll get better soon. Please review, like, a vote is great, I'd really like to know who should win, so far it's one vote each for Prussia, Russia, Scotland and Germany. Yup. Bad things will happen if that's the ending uhh... group of males who win. (how would I even go about writing that?). **


	12. Chapter 12

**I have so much homework~ I don't know how I'm going to deal with the rest of school if I can't even handle this year :'( but, life goes on and I'm forever happy with how much you guys like my story. I can't wait to write another one!**

The three boys walked down the street. Arthur was dragging his nearly full wheelie bag thing behind him (and a number of cloth bags containing things that wouldn't fit in the wheelie bag), staring at all the different buildings they passed. Everything was so lively! Even after the many wars in recent years, this small town seemed to be so happy.

"I wish they didn't have to ration things so strictly! I haven't had chocolate since I was four!" complained Feliciano, dragging his bag of recently bought groceries.

"Indeed. I hope the day they stop rationing sweets comes soon" Arthur said glancing at some items that resembled sweets in a shop window. (A/n: Fun fact: sweet rationing didn't stop 'till about eight years after WW2. The more you know.)

"Stupid heads! It'll take forever for the rationing to stop and you know it. Everything sucks after those two particularly sucky bitch fights" Said Lovino who was also carrying his fair share of food.

"You mean the wars." Corrected Arthur

"Yeah, the great big bitch fights of the 20th century. It's all anyone is going to remember this century for"

"That's not true!" Said Feliciano

"No it's not true" started Lovino "Some other country is going to come along and start a bigger war, and then we'll be remembered for that too-"

"I'm sorry to interrupt your, um… civilised conversation, but isn't this where we're supposed to buy our bread?" Arthur gestured to a bakery. He could see Vash reading a newspaper at the counter. Arthur entered.

"Yeah, let's just get our fucking bread and go home"

"Ve~ you shouldn't swear so much, Lovi"

Lovino paused, successfully blocking the door way and preventing his brother from entering the bakery "You got a problem with it?" Lovino was ticked off. In the last ten minutes he had come to the realisation that life sucked.

Feliciano stayed quiet (for once) and watched Arthur purchase a few loafs of bread from Vash. Lovino death glared his brother and Feli just continued to watch Arthur and Vash chat. Arthur spotted the tension between his two Italian friends and decided to try and get them to stop fighting or at least stop glaring. Vash went back to his newspaper as Arthur left the store.

"You two have done nothing but fight this whole trip!" Arthur barked "As punishment you… um… have to…" Arthur paused and looked into the window of a nearby shop "buy a bike"

The two Italians glanced at each other and smiled "What?" Lovino laughed "That's like the worst idea for punishment ever!"

"That's really funny~" Feliciano started to giggle.

"Didn't you need to talk to Vash? Go do it." Said Arthur as he tried to stop the inevitable teasing

"No, it can wait 'till tomorrow!" Said Feliciano through his cackling

After much laughter from Feli and Lovi and lots of glares from Arthur, the brothers got out their wallets. The two looked at each other.

They started to talk to each other in rapid Italian, as if to decide whether or not they would get the bright red (Tomato red?) bicycle they had seen in the window

"We got some money from nonno a few days ago. Early birthday money we guess. There's not a whole lot to buy in this town so a bike doesn't sound like a bad idea" Said Lovino.

That day, the three boys went home with no money in their pockets, some food, and a brand new bike.

"We must name it!" Said Lovino as they neared home

"Tomato!" said Feliciano

"It's too badass for _just_ tomato" the brothers turned to Arthur. "Name it." Said Lovino

"It's your bike, you can name it" Arthur said

"Name it Arthur. You made us buy it" Lovino persisted.

"Yeah Arthur, You made us buy it. You name it." Said Feliciano

"…badass… tomato?" Arthur was unsure of this name, but from the smiles he'd received he guessed he'd picked an okay name.

"From this day forth this bike shall be known as _the_ badass tomato!" Said Lovino as they neared the orphanage

It was getting close to lunch time and Feliciano was complaining about being hungry.

"We'll be back soon, retard! Stop being such a pussy!" said Lovino. As if trying to contradict him, Lovino's stomach growled louder than Feliciano's had "Fuck."

"Um… Why don't we talk about where you guys came from 'till we arrive?" Arthur just wanted the two to stop complaining about food.

"Yeah! That's a great idea~ I come from Milan, but Lovi came from somewhere else I can't remember the name of~" Said Feliciano happily

"It's Matera, dumbass" Lovino glared at his air headed brother for what felt like the hundredth time that day.

"Oh yeah…"

"So you guys came from different parts of Italy?"

"Yup~ we were raised apart because of our parents. Lovi stayed with mamma while I went to live with papa"

"Your parents must have been very different" speculated Arthur. Indeed, the differences between the brothers were many.

"I wouldn't know. I never met papa. The only reason me and Feli know each other now is because they both died or disappeared or some shit" said Lovino, hopping onto the badass tomato. He picked up Feliciano and put him on the shiny metal back seat.

"We'll meet you at home, I'm too hungry to walk at this pace" with this Lovino set off at an impressive speed down the road. Arthur was alone.

_'Well that was rude.' _Arthur supposed that Lovino didn't want to talk about that subject anymore. Oh well, it was only another few minutes until he arrived back anyway. He was still slightly ticked off, but what could he do? At least they'd taken their bags with them. Less for Arthur to carry.

"Hello Arthur-san, taking a walk I see" said a voice from beside him. Finally, a ninja with the correct nationality.

"Hello Kiku. I'm just bringing the shopping home"

"Oh, would you like some help carrying the bags? They can be such a nuisance sometimes"

"Yes please"

Kiku picked up two of the four bags Arthur had been carrying and the two boys walked the rest of the way engaged in polite conversation. 

When they arrived, Ralph was sitting on the front steps with a blonde boy who had two large curls on either side of his head and green eyes. Ralph had a black eye and many more cuts and bruises on his face and shins. Arthur obviously wasn't too worried as he'd put the bags he was carrying in the kitchen and placed their contents in the correct spot before he came to his cousin's aid.

"What happened?" asked Arthur.

**Sorry, I'm really tired so Imma leave this here. Have fun imagining what Arthur and Kiku talked about. It could've been anything. Please review, vote for the winner or whatever, just enjoy the story I guess. HAPPY COOKIES TO ALL WHO GOT THIS FAR.**


	13. Chapter 13

"David… David hit me!" said Ralph. He was rubbing his eyes ferociously in an attempt to somehow prevent himself from crying.

Arthur gave the small blonde boy a once over "I'm impressed. What did he do? Insult your accent or something?"

"He stole my pet sheep" said David as he glared daggers at Ralph.

"Yeah, well you kiwis are known for being sheep shaggers, I was liberating it." Ralph said.

Arthur face palmed. "I see." Arthur thought for a moment "You can do whatever you want to Ralph. He deserves it."

As the two younger boys started bickering over how to settle things, Arthur sauntered off.

Arthur _sort of _regretted starting a fight between Ralph and David, but only sort of.

On his way to his room, a girl with brown hair and pigtails Arthur had met at school spilled a bucket of muddy water on him.

"I'm really sorry for that! I'll make it up to you later I promise!" She apologised quickly and left before Arthur could ask what she was doing here in the first place. She didn't even take her bucket.

Upon arriving at his room, Arthur checked his closet for clean clothes. There were no clothes. At all. Anything that had any chance of fitting Arthur had been removed by an anonymous douchebag.

'_No no no no no. I need to be clean!' _After Arthur had freaked out, he decided to just get out of his clothes and stay in his room until he figured out a solution.

There was a knock at the door. Arthur was wearing nothing but his (thankfully still mostly dry) boxers. With hesitance, Arthur decided to answer the door. Before he could say anything, Arthur's heard was covered with a burlap sack and his hands and feet were being tied to a chair.

"What the fu-"

"Shh… there is much to do" said Francis.

"Why am I not surprised it's you?" Arthur said

"It's not just me! Elizabeta, Victoria and Lili are here too!" Francis said, presumably trying to justify his actions

"Shut up, Francis! You weren't supposed to tell him!" a voice Arthur recognised Elizabeta's said

"Since I know who you all are, can we lose the sack? It's itchy"

"…Fine." Said Elizabeta, taking away the sack

"So why have you tied me to this chair?" asked Arthur

"No reason. Look down" smiled the pigtail girl from earlier. She must've been Victoria.

Arthur did as he was told and looked down at his knees. His blue clad knees. Wait what?

"What…? How…"

"You're wearing a dress, Arthur." Said Lili

To be honest, Arthur would not have expected the nice little blonde girl to be in on this.

"But how did you get it on with my hands tied to the chair?"

"Magic~" Said Francis

"But how didn't I notice-"

"And now that you're not wearing the sack, we can put on your makeup!" said Elizabeta, grinning.

After an hour of the girls and Francis applying cosmetics to Arthur's face and placing a wig on his head, they were done. Arthur had struggled at the beginning, but the sharp objects they were holding near his face changed his mind quickly.

Arthur looked in the handheld mirror and saw a girl staring back at him. She had all the same features of Arthur, but it wasn't Arthur. It was just some girl that happened to be in the mirror. That's what Arthur tried to tell himself but it just wasn't working. They had successfully made Arthur into a fairly attractive young lady. Fuck.

"Why would you do this!?" Arthur was unhappy that he looked so convincing. He was supposed to be a manly gentleman, not a pretty girl.

"We can't tell you" said Francis

"Can you at least tell me whose idea it was?"

The three girls looked at Francis

"Of course. I suppose he was the one that took my clothes too"

"That was actually Lili" said Francis

"Yup! You have some very nice bowties Mister Arthur!"

'_Mister? She's very polite, isn't she?'_

"Umm… thank you?" Arthur was still tied to the chair and was thinking of ways to escape.

"Enough chit-chat! We have a job to do!" said Elizabeta

Without delay, Victoria untied Arthur.

"So you're just letting me go?"

"Yes, it's all part of the pla-" Francis covered Victora's mouth.

"There's no plan. Just go" he said

Arthur backed away from the group very slowly, afraid of getting tackled or something while his back was turned. When he reached the hallway he broke into a sprint. He needed to find some new clothes and a way to get the makeup and wig off before anyone saw him.

All rooms but Ivan's were locked. Arthur wasn't even going to try to enter that one; he was afraid of Ivan and didn't want to die for entering his room without permission.

Arthur heard something. It sounded like… no. Please no. He thought he'd heard Gilbert and Antonio laughing down the hall. He heard them again, closer this time. If he didn't go outside, he'd risk being seen by them. Arthur looked out the window. No one was in the garden. He'd have to risk it.

Now if you're wondering why he was so against letting people see him like this it's merely because, to put it delicately, most of the kids in the orphanage were dicks. They'd never let him live it down maybe Kiku would, but that's it.

"Arthur?" Said a distinctively Austrian voice

Oh shit.

**Please, please, please review. I really like to know things. I'm going to ask you all forever because I love them so much. They're great. You guys are great too, but I'm sure you know that already~ You make me so happy!**


	14. Chapter 14

"You are Arthur aren't you? You look weird." Said Roderich, staring at Arthur's pigtails

There was silence.

"U-um… I'm not Arthur! I'm Alice! Yes, that's my name" Said Arthur in his best girl voice. He hoped Roderich couldn't see through his lie. Actually, whether or not Roderich could actually _see _at the moment was probably a good thing to ask as the Austrian lacked glasses and just had that 'I can't see a damn thing' air about him.

"Oh, I'm sorry; you just look a lot like him." Said Roderich unapologetically

"You can't see anything can you?" Said Arthur- um…Alice as he waved his hand in front of Roderich's face.

Roderich frowned "I may not be able to see details at the moment but that doesn't mean I'm blind" he said

"Err… sorry."

"Don't do it again"

"…"

"I'm not going to ask you why you're here. You're a friend of Elizabeta's aren't you?"

"Yes." Arthur lied. There's no way in hell he'd be friends with her now.

"Have you seen a boy that looks vaguely like you?

"…No, why?"

"I need him to help me find my glasses"

Arthur glanced down at Roderich's breast pocket that contained his glasses.

'_How absent minded of him, leaving them in there and forgetting' _Thought Arthur

Without considering the pros and cons of telling Roderich the location of his glasses, he picked them out of the pocket and said "Oh, you mean these ones?"

Roderich squinted "Yes, those ones. Please give them to me"

Arthur realised his fault and decided against giving the glasses to his Austrian friend.

"No" Said Arthur

"What" Said Roderich angrily

"No, I'm not giving these to you. You have to catch me first!" Arthur's plan was great! Run away, hide, then leave to get clothes and give the glasses back tomorrow or something, it was flawless!

Arthur ran away. Sadly, he was caught rather quickly. Arthur just sort of sucked at running. Roderich was now trying to wrestle his glasses away from Arthur with minimal damage to himself and the rude girl he had met.

"I caught you! Now give them back!"

"Only if you let go of me!"

"Not until you let go!"

"Fine, we let go on three. One, two, three!" They tumbled onto the grass, Roderich hastily put on his glasses only to get a glimpse of the girl's face before she ran off. Roderich watched her now grass stained blue dress sway as she ran. He blushed. The um… 'reality'… had just hit him. Roderich had just wrestled an extremely cute girl to the ground without even an apology.

"Yo, Roddy! I never knew you were such a ladies man! Gimmie five!" Said Gilbert, who had watched the whole ordeal from a nearby window

"Shut up Gilbert. It's not like that" Said Roderich

"Sure it isn't, Roddy. Sure it isn't"

Arthur was panting. He didn't remember being that out of shape; surely it was the dress that hindered him. He was currently climbing up a ladder that had been conveniently placed near his bedroom window. At least he didn't have to worry about getting caught again as his window was facing the less busy part of the garden. Arthur had learned that people rarely came back here for fear of getting eaten by a monster. Arthur assumed the monster rumour had something to do with Vlad, but he would ponder that later, at the moment he was trying to get into his room.

He hopped onto the carpeted floor without a sound and found on his bed a note atop of some clothes and makeup remover. The note said: _I was wrong to force you into the clothes, here are some normal ones. I don't want the others seeing you like this. Give the wig back to me later._

_-Francis_

'_Well, that's strange'_ Thought Arthur '_Maybe Francis is an okay bloke' _

Soon Arthur had gotten out of his dress and was wearing, but he'd decided that pyjamas would be better to wear as it was getting on five o'clock and he was tired. He looked at himself in the mirror and he looked like Arthur again! He was happy. But this day had been rather eventful and he was ready to sleep, so he wrote a note to leave on his bedside table to whoever came to tell him dinner was ready.

'_I am sleeping; leave me be, I'll eat later' _it said

That night Arthur was not woken by noisy teenagers, his annoying cousin or an eccentric Romanian (who had tried to sneak into the room only days before), it was completely peaceful… If you don't count his dream. That shit was wack.

**This is my shortest chapter yet :'c sorry this was all I could make this week, school is being mean to me.**


	15. Chapter 15

Arthur was shaken awake by someone the next morning. This someone happened to have red hair, green eyes and big eyebrows.

"What are you doing Allistor? Go away" Arthur groaned

"Nah, I have ta ask ya somethin'"

"What is it? I have sleeping to do"

"Why're ya wearin' make up?"

"Oh, shit really?!" Arthur sat up

"No" Allistor was stifling a laugh "but ya still look like a lass"

Arthur was worried now "Who have you been talking to?"

"Ralph. He wanted revenge for you letting the kiwi wail on him"

Allistor knew. Well isn't that just fan-tucking-fastic

"Wail… on him?" This was a new term that Arthur hadn't heard, so he was rightfully confused.

"I learned it from that American lad. The yanks have such odd slang"

Arthur just stared at him. A scot complaining about how strange American slang is was just sort of not right.

"You're Scottish"

"Yeh, what gave it away?"

There was a pause "Back on topic. You're not going to let this go are you?"

"No"

"I didn't think so" Arthur sighed "Let's go find something to do…"

"Okay, but wash your face first, you look like shit"

"You're such a joy to be around" Said Arthur sarcastically

"You're welcome"

While he was getting dressed, Arthur remembered something "You've never given me any stuffed animals have you?"

"I gave you the green bunny rabbit" Said Allistor, slightly impressed that Arthur would recall such a thing; it had been just over ten years since he'd given Arthur the toy. It was a bribe to get Arthur to stop crying over something, a scraped knee maybe?

"Oh? So that's where she came from. And here I thought she'd been given to me my some fairies" said Arthur.

Allistor laughed "That's great! You're so funny Artie!"

Arthur blushed. He had been entirely serious. The two were currently exploring the farmland Allistor's family had purchased. There were a shit ton of cows and trees.

They stopped in front of a particularly large oak "This looks like a good climbing tree" said Allistor

"Fine, but when we get back to your house we're listening to the radio" said Arthur. Truth be told he didn't like climbing much as it messed up his nice clean clothes

"I wouldn't have it any other way, _love_" said Allistor

"Love?" Arthur was confused why had Allistor called him that?

"Love."

"Gay" Arthur liked that word. It felt nice to say.

Allistor smiled at Arthur "So gay"

The two boys were now watching the sky from a hole in the leaves "Did you know that the Americans are moving back to the states?" Said Allistor

Arthur's face fell "Oh. That's a shame, I really like them. Do you know why they're going?"

"I think the parents are splitting up. I heard one is going to stay in Canada"

Arthur got even sadder "I wonder why? They seemed so happy"

"Sometimes everything just turns to shit." Stated Allistor bluntly, having experienced something similar to what was happening to the Jones' at the moment.

"Promise you won't go, okay?" Said Arthur looking at Allistor "If any more people leave I think my mind might break"

Allistor gave Arthur a hug (well, as close you can get to a hug when you're sitting in a tree).

"Don't be a pussy, Arthur. Ya know I can't promise I won't leave, but even if I or anyone else does, I'm certain you'll just be stronger the next time we meet. Ya're that kind of a lad"

"You're kind of a douche."

"I never said I wasn't"

Arthur knew Allistor moved around a lot, it was just one of those things. Allistor's family were never very good at staying in one place, but somehow, Arthur's Scottish might-be relative always managed to find time to visit him.

"If you leave I'll miss you" Said Arthur

"I'm sure I'd miss you more"

For the rest of the afternoon they sat in the tree talking about what they'd do if they ran the world and how much better everything would be if everyone could just get along. Soon enough it was dark and significantly colder. It had been cold to begin with so yeah. It was super cold.

Arthur sneezed "I have to go back; they'll be worried if I stay out for too long"

"Okay, I'll walk you back" said Allistor. He wasn't even shivering; really, he was much too resistant to the cold for it to be normal.

When they arrived, it was getting on 5:30 and Arthur had to wash up and do some chores before dinner. The warm glow of the house was comforting. It reminded Arthur that even in the cold and darkness, there could be a nice, warm house filled with happiness, just waiting to be cleaned.

"good-" Arthur turned to say goodbye to his friend but was instead met with a peck on the lips.

"There's some things I didn't tell you." Allistor paused "this news isn't so fabulous. I'm moving to Glasgow in a few days. I'll be packing and getting ready to leave so I probably won't be going to school so I'm saying this now, I really, really like you Arthur"

Arthur was dumbfounded and before he could even think properly, Allistor had bolted

"This sucks." Said Arthur

And Arthur was right this did suck. It sucked big time. His long-time best friend was leaving, possibly for good, never mind the other stuff and Arthur hadn't even said a proper goodbye. Arthur felt like he was being torn to bits.

After banging his head against the brick wall in frustration, he decided to stop killing his brain cells and go inside for some tea.

**I'm so sorry I haven't updated for two weeks, I just had to finish some things. Well, I'm now on holiday, so no more laziness for me, I love you all, you make me happy~ Please review I'm needing some positive feedback after that English assessment ****_*groans*_**** Why they addressed a third person story like it's written in first person is beyond me *****_shakes head* _****English teachers amirite?**


	16. Chapter 16

**Gah, I actually really dislike how I write~ But I won't be able to change it unless I practise, so I'll soldier on!**

"I miss Allistor" Said Ralph as he pulled a sock onto his foot

"As do I" Replied Arthur. Arthur was still sad about his loss of friends.

"Everyone is going to leave, I can feel it"

"Don't say that, you'll jinx it"

"Are you sure that's how jinxes work?" Said Ralph.

Arthur rolled his eyes and the two began making their way to the main house.

At breakfast, Arthur hardly ate. A week had passed since Allistor had gone, and the Americans were leaving on a boat this afternoon. On top of that, he hadn't seen Vlad in a while. The Romanian had said something about 'sleeping for ten years to grow' whatever that meant. It seemed like everyone was leaving.

"Hey Arthur! Why so glum?" Feliciano asked as he sat down next to Arthur

"It's nothing"

"You can tell me~"

"Are you planning on leaving anytime soon?" Asked Arthur, hoping he wouldn't get anything even remotely similar to a 'yes'. He was just making sure that no one else was going to leave. What can he say? He loved having friends.

"What do you mean? I'm going on a holiday with Lovi and nonno soon if that's what you meant"

"…fine"

"You're strange, Arthur~"

"Mm"

"And we should make pasta together!"

"No thank you… I'm not really in the mood for cooking" said Arthur, not feeling in the mood for doing anything.

Feliciano looked down trodden "Another time then?"

"Hey, Girly tea drinker, we should make pasta!" Shouted Lovino from across the room

"Feliciano already asked me and I declined, thank you" Arthur half-heartedly shouted back. He was getting annoyed now. Why couldn't they just let him mope without bringing pasta into everything?

"Fuck you!" Lovino shouted

"Fuck you t-" Arthur began, but before he could finish, there was a large crash from the front of the house. Everyone stopped talking.

"Shit… If it's Mathias again I'm going to have to do something…" Alvise spoke to himself in a low tone as he went to investigate.

When Alvise came back, he had a rather grim look on his face.

"Kurt call the doctor." He said

"Should I also contact Tino and Berwald?" Asked Kurt

"Please do"

Soon enough everyone was chattering away with their theories on what had happened. The only person in the room who had even the slightest idea of what was going on was Lukas, who wasn't talking.

"Please tell us? Pleasepleaspleaspleaseplease?" Gilbert pleaded

"No" Lukas dead-panned

"I'll give you my super-secret stash of beer?" Said Gilbert

"Douche nozzle, that's probably what caused it…" After Lukas realised that he had just given away the reason for his friend's 'might-be-serious-but-we-don't-know' accident he scolded himself and made a mental note never to talk to Gilbert again. "Shit"

"KESESE! I KNOW WHAT'S WRONG! MATHIAS IS JUST SMASHED!" Gilbert shouted loud enough for all of Britain to hear.

"That's enough! Everyone, go to school. I'll tell you what has happened to Mathias this evening, now scram!" Alvise seemed unusually wound up. Arthur didn't even think it was possible for the man to put on a serious face, let alone get mad.

The boys put on their shoes and left for school. Lovino and Feliciano, having ridden on the Badass Tomato, arrived on time while everyone else was late (and covered in mud I might add).

"Arthur, we've gotta run! That teacher lady doesn't like it when I'm late… She's like a dragon! All scaly and stuff!" Ralph said, flailing his arms.

Arthur smiled at his cousin "Do you think you can beat me to the gates?" he said pointing to the gates about fifty metres from where they were.

"You wanna go boy!? I'll beat you so hard that by the time you're there you'll be a submarine"

Before Arthur could say 'Wait… what?' Ralph was already sprinting toward the school gates.

Arthur obviously didn't want to be beaten in a race by someone half his size, so he began running as fast as he could.

Surprisingly (or not), Arthur made it to the gates before Ralph, despite the eight year old's head start.

"Fuck you pommy bastard. You're too British to win a race against me! Fuckyoufuckyoufuckyou!"

"Sucks to be you Ralph, because I just won" Arthur glared at Ralph "And I'll pretend I didn't hear you swear at me… This time"

"Oooohhh scary~" Mocked Ralph

"Shut it" Arthur said as he and Ralph parted ways, going to their separate classrooms.

"Bye Artie"

"See you after that detention you're getting"

"Wait wha-"

Down the hall, the shouts of a certain scaly teacher directed at a certain smartass Australian could be heard.

**I'm sorry for the wait, I've just had some things to do recently (like argue with my mum over the cuteness of moomin mugs) I'm not particularly sure where this story is going but I'm having fun writing it. Please review~ (umm… kissys in next chappie if you do?)**

**And yes, I am a lazy bum.**


	17. Chapter 17

**Letter to Allistor**

**If eight year olds could use punctuation.**

**TO: Allistor Scott**

**FROM: Ralph Kirkland**

_Hey Allistor! Here's that list you asked for. You'd better write a thank you letter back to me after this; it was fucking awful trying to write this shit and send it to you without dear Artie noticing. _

_And yes, I do intend to stop you from doing any more hanky-panky with Artie, just giving you the heads up (I'm giving you info 'cause it's more interesting this way, Glasgow boy)_

_Francis: Shit beard's been pretty obvious lately, I'm thinking of attaching Bruce to Arthur as protection. _

_Antonio: I'm not so sure about this guy, it's pretty hard to tell what he's thinking (if he thinks at all), but he acts differently around Artie so I'm just gonna put him under 'maybe'_

_Gilbert: The dude-miester himself. Indeed, he's informed me many a time that he enjoys spending time with Artie. Until then I'd thought it had been impossible for him to be even slightly bashful. I was shocked to say the least_

_Roderich: You saw the dress thing._

_Mathias: Drunk-ass bastard nearly punched my head off. I wouldn't worry about him for too much longer though, he's going to some place in Scandinavia to help with his whole 'drown sorrows in alcohol' thing._

_Lukas: Cold guy. Over the three or so months of us being here, I think that Arthur has warmed him up ever so slightly. I heard he was headed back to Scandinavia with his little brother and Mathias. I guess he has problems too. I mean, we all do, but I digress_

_Kiku: Kiku not so much. I think they're good friends and all, but he probably doesn't even think that way._

_Ivan: You know when I said Lukas was cold? This guy's colder, but in a more literal sense. He's a psycho, Russian, big coat and scarf wearing freak who Arthur shouldn't be around, but ends up going to see sunflowers with anyway._

_Vlad: he's a vampire_

_The Vargas brothers count as the same person: They like to hog Arthur's attention_

_And that, dear Allistor was my not quite complete list of people who may or may not have a bit of a thing for bushy brows. Obsessive? Me? Of course. There's fuck all to do around here, I may as well place a few bets with Elizabeta and see how this plays out, watching just means I have a better chance of winning money._

_P.S I really do want that 'thank you' note_

**_TO: Ralph Kirkland_**

**_From: Allistor Scott_**

_Fuck you, I'll say thank you when I'm ready._

**Hey everyone, you'll just have to deal with a letter this week because I have exams!**

**Review?**


	18. Time skip!

**April, 1956-ish, London, England**

Arthur sat in the living room/kitchen of his small flat, opening letters sent to him by Ralph. Ralph had sent the letter from Australia. A few months ago (or was it a year? Arthur couldn't remember) Ralph had received a package in the mail (how the senders got his current address Ralph still hasn't figured out). Inside was a large pile of photos and an envelope. The pictures were of a small girl who looked about two with brown curly hair, thick eyebrows and green eyes. In most of the pictures, she was holding a paint splattered piece of paper that vaguely made out the shape of a person. Now, this didn't make much sense to Ralph until he'd read the message within the envelope.

The letter informed him that his parents had had another child. The girl in the photos was his little sister. His parents wrote that she desperately wanted to meet her brother and they hoped that he would consider coming back to Australia to live with them.

Of course Ralph had proceeded to tell them to fuck off, but after much persuasion on Arthur's part, Ralph decided that he'd have to meet his sister some time, so he'd get it out of the way and come back to England after a few weeks. Weeks turned into months and he and his little sister were now as thick as thieves.

Back to Arthur, Ralph's letter was telling him of how he intended to get on the next plane/boat back to London.

Now, you may be wondering, 'What's Arthur doing in London instead of wherever it was before?' and that's a good question. Arthur moved out of the orphanage with Ralph a few months after Lukas, Mathias and Emil left with a lovely Finnish man called Tino, and a few months before everyone else in the orphanage went their separate ways. Most went back to their respective countries (save for the Germans, Italians and Kiku who are in London somewhere). Alvise decided it would be in everyone's best interest to move out. Alvise never specified why, but Arthur speculated that he probably wasn't legally allowed to live in England or look after children or something like that.

Arthur sat is his armchair and reminisced about the short time he'd spent at the orphanage. Sipping his tea, he remembered Vlad. And the promise. He was turning twenty-three soon. Very soon. Shitshitshitshitshit.

What was he getting worked up about? A promise he'd made with a crazy person ten years ago? Haha…

Arthur decided to contact with his only current friend. He picked up the phone and dialled the number "Hello, Kiku? I was wondering if you'd like to come over for some tea." Arthur said into the phone

"This is rather sudden Arthur-san..."

"We'll talk when you arrive, please just hurry"

"Okay…See you soon then" The line went dead

Arthur decided to listen to the radio and maybe do some reading to calm his nerves. He wasn't really one to worry, but he'd learned from experience that Vampires were very persistent.

At about six pm there was a knock at the door, Arthur jumped at the sound and opened the door slowly.

"Hello Arthur-san, are you well?" Asked Kiku

Arthur breathed a sigh of relief "I'm glad it's you" Arthur realised how his words must've sounded and blushed a little.

Kiku coughed as he walked to the living room and sat in his armchair "Why so skittish, Arthur-san?" he said after his blush had faded.

"Oh, no reason, Did you know it's been ten years since we left the orphanage? I wonder how everyone is doing." Said Arthur, changing the topic.

"They're all very well. Feliciano-san and Lovino-san still talk about you sometimes. Maybe we should try to get into contact with everyone"

Arthur was happy. People hardly ever spoke _to_ him let alone _about_ him (not to say that wasn't a good thing, alone time is always good). "That's a grand idea. Should we invite the ones in other countries too?"

"I don't see why we shouldn't try"

"Lovely" Arthur smiled. He only ever smiled around Kiku, everyone at his work (a large tailoring store) treated him rather badly. Especially some very, very Irish twins who Arthur went drinking with sometimes despite how mean they could be.

After a few phone calls and a little bit of searching, somehow Kiku had gotten the phone numbers and addresses of most of the kids from the orphanage and a few of the ones from school.

Arthur just stared at Kiku in amazement "How did you do that?"

"Kiku dokidoki magic"

"…what?"

The two young men continued talking like they usually did on nights like these. Arthur had completely forgotten about his vampire problem and fallen asleep. Kiku carried Arthur to his room and attempted to place him on his bed but Arthur wouldn't let go, so Kiku decided something along the lines of 'screw it; I want to sleep here with him so I will'.

Arthur awoke to a hug from his best friend, but was half asleep so he was all 'cool' and went back to sleep.

**I ****_finally _****did the time skip. It was forced and unnatural, but I think it's pretty good for something thrown together at 12 am**

**I'm pretty sure I aced my maths exam, btw.**


	19. Old friends, Bar fights and Irishmen

When Arthur woke up properly, Kiku was on the phone.

"Arthur-san, I see you're awake" said Kiku, covering the speaker with his hand.

"No shit." Arthur wasn't a morning person. Nothing new, Kiku didn't mind.

"Mm, Allistor-san would like your address and place of work"

"Why does he want to know where I work?"

"You _can_ ask him"

"Pass me the phone, Kiku"

Kiku gave him the phone after informing Allistor that he was being passed to Arthur.

"_Heyo Artie-boy, how are ya?" _Allistor sounded significantly older. Of course he did. Arthur mentally slapped himself. Ten years.

"Tired. What are you doing up so early? I thought you hated mornings as much as I did"

"_That's a fantastic way to greet someone you haven't heard from in a decade… anyway_,_ I never went to sleep. People to do, things to see…"_

"Surely you meant it the other way around?"

"_Nope"_

"Okay… why do you want to know where I work?"

_"To know where to find you, ya dill pot. It means I can hang at a pub until you get off work. Actually, meet me at the nearest place after work, I'll probably be there"_

"I thought you were in Scotland, Allistor"

_"I rocked up to London last night. It was a very long trip so I haven't slept yet"_

"Why are you here? Is it because of me? Actually, no don't answer that yet" Arthur glanced at the clock and sighed "we'll catch up later; I have to get ready for work" He told Allistor his adress and the rest of his details, bade him farewell and hung up.

Kiku and Arthur then had a lovely breakfast consisting of whatever was in the fridge and some tea.

"I should go now Arthur-san. There's a serial killer that I must catch. He takes all of his victims' blood and it's just… awful" Kiku shivered, putting down his tea cup and grabbing his coat.

"Oh yeah, you're a detective now, aren't you? Good job" Arthur pat Kiku on the back.

"Yes." Kiku smiled and waved "Goodbye, Arthur-san"

"Bye Kiku" Said Arthur as he closed the door to the bathroom and tried to have the quickest shower ever taken. before he missed his bus. He threw on some mildly smart-looking clothes before he ran out the door, Missing said bus that he'd tried not to miss.

When he arrived at the tailor having run about two… maybe three kilometres, he was greeted by a young man with bright orange hair and freckles.

"Hi Artie, You look like shit. Maybe comb would do you some good. Also, you're late; it would suck if I told the boss how late you've been recently" he said

"Shut up _Patrick" _Replied Arthur. It's true Arthur had been off the ball recently. He was very lonely and his apparent lack of friends wasn't helping anyone.

"I'm not Patrick and you know it" the orange hair freckle guy said, glaring daggers at Arthur.

"I'll call you by your name when you call me by mine, _Patrick"_

"Did somebody say my name?" Said another orange hair freckle guy with shorter hair and less freckles as he walked through the door.

"No Pat, _Artie_ here was just being a prick"

"Well Artie should stop being a prick, then" Said Patrick

"My thoughts exactly" He flicked Arthur lightly "Call me Dylan~ It's my name, you know you want to call it~"

"Shut up and let me work, you Irish bastard!" Shouted Arthur as he began on the ball gown he'd been working on for the past two days. He was glad it was still another thirty minutes or so 'til the shop opened. Shouting wouldn't be good for buisness.

"Calm yo titties" said Patrick "Dylan's a dick but you don't need to shout. Let's get to the matter at hand"

"I hate you, Pat"

"I hate you too, Dylan" said Patrick, blowing a kiss to his brother "The point is, will you come down to the pub with us?"

Arthur paused. How... the two topics weren't even related..."No, go do your work" said Arthur after going through his mental process.

"But-" Started Patrick

"_Now"_

Patrick clicked his tongue and left to find his work station.

"You too, Dylan"

Dylan smiled and gave Arthur a very sarcastic feeling hug. "I knew you had it in you" He said before tottering off.

The day passed fairly slowly. The twins kept pestering Arthur until he caved and agreed to join them on the condition that they go only to the nearest pub.

The only thing that kept Arthur happy was that he'd be seeing Allistor at the end of the day. Having forgotten (or purposely blocked out) many of the details of his stay at the orphanage, the kiss being one of them, Arthur was entirely clueless about how much Allistor liked him.

So, the work day ended and pub time was upon them.

"A-and she just l-left" sobbed Dylan recounting the tale of a girl he'd loved very much when he was twelve "I really thought she was the one"

"I know, Dylan. I liked her, too" said Patrick as he pat his brother on the back. Being significantly more sober, Patrick was not crying over something that happened over seven years ago.

"Ya know I really liked some someones when I was twelve… or was I thirteen? I can't remember, but there were these twins from North America that I really enjoyed the company of and these brothers from Italy, and two guys from Germany and a French guy and a Spanish guy…" Arthur started listing their nationalities as the booze had made their names escape him.

"Whoa, whoa, Artie, we don't need a list of where your friends came from" said Patrick

"But I want to tell you" said Arthur

"Yeah, I'm listening~" Dylan seemed to have forgotten all about the girl he was talking about for the time being

"Fine" said Patrick

"I'm listening, too" said Allistor sitting down on the stool next to Arthur.

"Hey Allistor" Said Arthur, having no trouble at all recognising his old friend even after ten years and many, many drinks.

Arthur noted that Allistor had gotten significantly more handsome, his face was more angular and his hair wasn't as red as it once was. He was still pasty as fuck, though.

"Hey" replied Allistor, clearly not entirely sober

"Who's he? He sounds Scottish" Inquired Dylan, somehow able to distingush his accent from a simple word.

"I'm Allistor, an old friend of Artie's"

"I don't like you" Said Dylan.

Arthur fell off his chair after growing bored and falling asleep "You're... so... pasty..." He mumbled.

"I don't like you much either"

"Artie seems to have fainted" Said Pat dragging him to a safe enough place at the edge of the bar.

"You wanna go?" asked Dylan

"Sure, but let's take this outside, people who aren't involved don't need to get hurt, after all" said Allistor cracking his knuckles

"Okay" Said Dylan holding the door open for Allistor

"Thanks" Gentlemanly.

When they came back, they seemed to have become rather good friends, despite the many cuts and bruises they sported.

"We should do that again!" Said Dylan patting Allistor on the back roughly

"Hell yeah, you're a great bloke! I've gotta take Artie home, but I'll see you again" (and from that day forth, there was an unspoken respect between the two men.)

"Sure, Allistor"

So, without conflict, Allistor put the extremely hammered Arthur on his back and left.

After Allistor and Arthur left, Patrick stared at Dylan.

"Dylan" he said after a long silence.

"Yeah?"

"You let a Scotsman steal our bitch"

There was a pause "...Shit, should we do something?"

"We should" said Patrick.

"We should." Repeated Dylan.

**Oh wow it's been almost a month since I last updated, sorry guys. I had my birthday, exams, a party and all that shizzle going on so I guess I got a little caught up in the real world.**

**Can you give me some reviews as a birthday present? Pretty please? (Even if this chappy sort of sucked).**


	20. Chapter 20

Arthur felt sick. Really sick. But it was Saturday, who's sick on a Saturday? And holy shit there were people in his bed. He couldn't move and he could feel one person on either side of him.

_'I swear if it's those stupid Irishmen again, I will scream'_

He struggled to turn his head and look at one of them. Red hair, big eyebrows, angular face. Allistor.

He breathed a sigh of relief. But then who was on the other side of him? He couldn't quite see but he could make out blonde hair and a hat. Who wears a hat while they sleep?

"That's a trick question Arthur, m'dear. I'm not asleep"

"HOLY SHIT WHAT THE FUCK" Arthur would've jumped out of his skin if he wasn't being hugged by Allistor so tightly.

The person moved into Arthur's field of vision.

"You know, I can hear you just fine. You don't need to yell. In fact, you don't even need to speak."

"BUT I DON'T EVEN KNOW YOU, WHY ARE YOU IN MY BED!?"

"Of course you know me; I'm the sexiest vampire you ever met"

"…Vlad?"

"Shut up, Arthur" Allistor hit Arthur with a pillow

"Ow" said Arthur

"Oh, I just love that you remembered me after I said I was a sexy vampire" Said Vlad as he glomped Arthur and crushed Allistor a bit in the process.

"Ouch. Why would you do that Arthur? Stop" said Allistor, still not quite up to speed on the situation.

This reminded Arthur of that time he was crushed by uhhh whathisface… Danish dude. He was super heavy.

"Get… off… Can't… Breathe…" said Arthur

"Oh yeah, you need oxygen, don't you?" Said Vlad like it was the kind of thing you forget "Now… what time is it… It must be lunch time now right? So, if you don't mind…" He went in for Arthur's neck.

"Fuck you. Arthur's mine, back off" said Allistor who was suddenly very awake. He checked his watch "and it's ten in the morning, dipshit" Allistor carried Arthur out of the room and locked the bedroom door behind him so Vlad couldn't get out.

"Who the hell is he!?" asked Allistor hurriedly

"He's a vampire… thing… I don't know"

"…Right. Why is he in your bed?"

"I'm not sure, you must've let him in last night. Vampires can't come inside unless they've been invited in."

Allistor thought back to the previous night

_"Feckin' hell, Artie. You're heavy as shit" said Allistor as he placed Arthur on the floor. _

_"Shut up, I have an appropriate weight for someone as fantastic as myself" Replied Arthur, too inebriated to get up from the floor_

_"what."_

_"Fantastic-ness = weight, it's physics" _

_"You're drunk Artie, we all know that the only time fantastic-ness has a weight is when you actually start putting enough glitter on your body to make you heavier."_

_"Just take me to bed. I want sleep~" There was a knock at the door_

_"Fine, you sleep, and I'll let in this person at the door"_

_"Make sure he's not a vampire" said Arthur as he found the strength to move and waddled off to his room._

Oh.

"I guess I did" said Allistor

"No! Do you know what you've done? Vampires are crazy, haven't you ever met one before?"

"Can't say I have, you know, because they **don't exist**"

"They do too exist" Arthur picked up Allistor's shoe and pulled out the lace. He then tied a rather intricate knot and threw it into the bedroom.

"What was that for?"

"I've always wanted to try it"

Through the door they heard Vlad walk across the floor, supposedly to pick up the shoelace.

Arthur opened the door and sure enough, Vlad was sitting on the floor immersed in untying this mother of all knots.

"What." said Allistor in disbelief.

"We can just leave him there until it's untangled" said Arthur. He knew all those mythology books weren't a waste of time!

"Should we… Should we kick him out or something?" Asked Allistor

"If he's just going to come back in anyway, I'd rather not touch him"

"Fair deuce"

So the two of them walked off into the kitchen and made themselves coffee in an attempt to cure the terrible hangovers they were experiencing. Due to said hang overs they did not think of what would happen after the shoelace was untangled.

"So how did you end up sleeping in the same bed as me?" Arthur asked as he munched on a burnt piece of toast.

"The couch wasn't comfy enough" Allistor lied

"I see."

"So… I think I should leave. I have some work to finish. Can I have a piece of string or something?"

"There's some in the second draw" Arthur pointed to a set of draws in the kitchen "Have fun doing work on a Saturday~" Arthur smiled

"Finally!" said Allistor as he re-laced his shoe.

"Finally what?" inquired Arthur

Allistor put on his coat "You smiled" he said, returning said smile before shutting the door in a bit of a rush.

Arthur was tired now. As soon as the door closed he felt too sleepy to think about much so he forgot all about the vampire untying a knot in the other room and went to sleep on the couch.

'It's not that uncomfortable' he mused absent mindedly as his eyes closed.


	21. Chapter 21

**Lololol well, my holidays are over and I'm sad about having to deal with real life people again after successfully avoiding human contact for most of two weeks. Anyway! I hope you enjoy this chapter because I tried! I really did!**

Arthur woke up at 6:00 pm with a dull headache and a vampire screaming "ahahahaha! I have completed it! Yes! Lunch time is nigh, Arthur~" from down the hall.

As it always is with Arthur, he was a bit befuddled waking up, so he hadn't quite realised that he was going to get munched on until Vlad had tackled him to the floor (bumping Arthur's head in the process) and had him pinned down in a rather… suggestive position.

"Ouch, you dick, that really hurt!" shouted Arthur as he tried to worm his way out of Vlad's grip.

"You know, it's not nice to say that you'll give someone food when you're not going to. That makes me cross. And just for that, I think I'll take a bite out of you anyway" Vlad said huffily

"But I'll die! Let me go you wanker!" Arthur screamed in protest

"Whoever told you that? I'm not so impolite that I'll kill you for a meal. No, I'm a more of a pacifist"

"_Well that changes everything, then._" said Arthur sarcastically "_I'll just let you __**drink my blood**_"

"Don't mind if I do," Vlad adjusted his hold on Arthur to make sure he didn't hurt himself on Vlad's teeth. That would just be tragic and messy.

"Hold still" he told Arthur.

It hurt like a bitch to say the least, for both parties. Arthur punched Vlad in the ribs causing one or two of them to crack. They did heal quickly but the sadness of being punched in the ribs by someone he considered a friend remained. Arthur just hurt because that's what being bitten is like.

"That was so mean! You didn't have to hurt me!" said Vlad, rubbing his once sore ribs.

"Tell that to my neck!" Replied Arthur, placing his hand on the puncture wounds to check if he was bleeding. He wasn't, but he felt incredibly woozy due to the loss of blood.

There was silence throughout the flat while the two cooled off on opposite sides of the room.

After ten minutes, Vlad was happy again, having had his first meal in weeks thanks to Arthur. Arthur however, was still fuming, maybe even more so than before.

"**_Get out of my house you great Pollock!_**_" _Shouted Arthur.

"No." said Vlad as he inspected the carpet.

"Why the bloody hell not!? You've eaten, get out!"

Vlad scrunched up his face "…I don't have anywhere to stay" He sobbed.

"Then go find somewhere else to stay, you lemon."

Suddenly, Vlad's face lost all expression. He looked up at Arthur, suddenly finding the carpet uninteresting, and _growled. _

He moved fast. Too fast for Arthur to see, but when Arthur was able to keep his eyes on him again, one of Vlad's hands were wrapped around the Brit's wrists, not hard enough to hurt him but still making Arthur rather uncomfortable.

"But I_ want_ to stay with you" said Vlad calmly

"Let go" Demanded Arthur

"No" And without a moment's hesitation, he crushed their lips together and bit down. Hard.

This caused Arthur to whimper a little. Vlad was scaring him. Not that he didn't anyway, but angry Vampires terrified Arthur.

After a minute or so of forced making-out Arthur was beginning to run out of air, forgetting that he could indeed breathe through his nose, so it was inevitable that two minutes into the kiss he had fainted due to loss of air coupled with loss of blood. Vlad had regained his senses after feeling Arthur go limp.

"OHMIGHERD ARTHUR, I'M SO, SO, SO, SO, SORRY! PLEASE DON'T BE DEAD AHH!" Vlad freaked out for quite a while before there was a knock at the door.

Vlad stopped rolling around on the floor, got up and answered the door, feigning calmness.

" -" started the small Asian man with a pony tail at the door "You're not Mr Kirkland"

"Nope" Said Vlad, smiling.

"Well, may I talk to him? It much too noisy here. My Siblings and I cannot eat our meal in peace"

"Er… well… He… Died?" Said Vlad, still smiling

"What!? Let me see him! Where is he!?" Demanded the pony-tail-Asian-man, pushing through the door.

Vlad pointed in the general direction of the living room. The small Asian man muttered something in Chinese as he power-walked into the living room.

He crouched down beside the passed out Arthur and checked his pulse while he listened for Arthur's breathing.

"He is alive, just fainted. But has wounds on neck. Put him to bed."

"Thank you for bringing Arthur back to life!" Vlad shook the man's hand vigorously "Mr. umm… Who are you?"

"I am the landlord, Wang Yao. You be quiet now or I move you out!" Said Yao as he left, giving Vlad a death stare. The door clicked shut.

"Well okay then, Arthur! We're going to bed!" Said Vlad, giving Arthur a smooch on the forehead.

Vlad and Arthur slept peacefully. At least, Vlad did. I'm not so sure about Arthur, what with all the occasional sleep bear hugs.

**Review? Please, oh pleasy please?**


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